Hello and welcome to the Gratitude Breakfast Club.
A quick morning meetup to help you jumpstart or maintain your gratitude practice.
We'll make it quick because we know you have things to do on this beautiful day.
Hello beautiful ones.
We've talked about how our usual greeting of,
Hi how are you,
Can often open up a Pandora's box of either insincerity or complaints as we indulge in our very human desire as social beings to connect.
We've also talked about the but strategy for turning our complaining around because remember while complaining is the opposite of our gratitude practice we also don't want to repress.
It's a strategy I hope you've been able to employ with some success.
Just the other day I encountered some script templates for turning complaints around that resonated with me so deeply that I wanted to share them with you.
Ayanna Abrams,
A licensed clinical psychologist who is also the founder of Ascension Behavioral Health,
Offers seven responses to,
As she says,
Tell the actual truth when someone asks how you are.
The responses were warm and invited greater connection without requiring the responder to overshare or complain.
The first response explicitly uses the but strategy that we're familiar with but others utilized different words to maintain healthy energy.
Some expressed appreciation for the person doing the asking and the fact that they cared enough to ask.
Others expressed a subjective truth and then shifted to appreciation.
So here they are.
How are you?
1.
Having a slower morning than I'd like but I'm hopeful I'll pick up some energy.
2.
That meeting didn't sit well with me.
I'm glad it's over.
3.
I have something hard to do later and I'm a little distracted by it right now.
4.
I'm having a rough mental health night.
Thank you for asking me how I'm doing.
5.
I'm doing better than yesterday so that's a relief.
Appreciate the check-in.
6.
I don't know how to describe how I am right now.
I'll think about that.
And 7.
I'm in a good headspace this weekend.
Of course you'll edit these script templates to put in what's true for you but they offer a lovely foundation so thank you Dr.
Abrams.
As you go about your day today I encourage you to keep these script templates in mind.
As you are answering how are you more authentically notice how you're feeling about your response and what you're appreciating about the quality of interactions you're having with others because of it.
With love appreciation and gratitude this is Karen.
