Day 8 - The Gratitude Breakfast Club

Whatever you’re thinking about is literally like planning a future event. When you’re worrying, you are planning. When you’re appreciating you are planning … What are you planning? - Abraham-Hicks (Live Workshop, 1997)

Switching between gratitude and appreciation energy allows us to deepen our practice and gives us even more to be thankful for. Let's practice that today and take the opportunity to plan for even more richness in our lives.

The correlation between a gratitude practice and greater perceived levels of happiness - as well as improved overall physical, mental and emotional well-being - has been shown in study after study. The GBC offers easy and enjoyable prompts to jump-start or deepen your morning gratitude practice. Every moment is a new moment, though, and gratitude helps no matter the hour on the clock, so tap into the Gratitude Breakfast Club any time you could use a pick-me-up!

Transcript

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 and welcome back to the Gratitude Breakfast Club.

As we get going with this morning's prompts,

There's a distinction I wanted to share that I think will allow you to dive even deeper and more joyfully into your practice,

And it's the distinction between gratitude and appreciation.

Many people use the terms gratitude and appreciation interchangeably,

But it can be fun to play with a subtle difference between the two.

With gratitude,

Your current energy contains greater elements of relief or celebration about a challenge overcome.

For example,

After a long day of work,

You may just feel incredibly thankful for your dinner.

You are thankful you have a moment to sit down and relax,

To feel your energy returning and your brain coming back online.

You may feel thankful to have the money,

Time,

And resources to have a good meal,

Which isn't a given for everyone.

Appreciation,

On the other hand,

Is predominantly forward-looking or completely without a time element,

More akin to wonder and awe.

Sitting down to another dinner,

You may be filled with a profound recognition of the hard work and skill that went into it,

So you're reveling in the resulting nourishment and beauty,

The smells,

The tastes,

The company,

The ambiance.

You are so wrapped up in appreciating the experience,

It doesn't matter what previous meals were like.

You just know that you're enjoying this one,

And more like it would be great.

Also with appreciation,

Something doesn't actually have to have happened or currently be happening for you to revel in the joy of it,

So it gives you even more to savor.

Even on a bright sunny day,

I can remember and appreciate the smell of rain hitting parched earth and the sight of mist and rainbows in the distance.

I can recognize that I appreciate kindness and thoughtfulness,

Even when I'm in the midst of experiencing the exact opposite.

So,

Gratitude and appreciation.

Both forms of savoring are beneficial and contribute to greater levels of perceived happiness.

Both experiences warrant our mindful attention and joy.

So,

As we use our journals or just think about this week's exercises,

I encourage you to start with the phrase,

I am thankful for and appreciate,

Then fill in the blank.

That way,

As we write our lists,

We are open to switching between gratitude and appreciation energy.

That level of mindfulness affords an abundance of things to journal about and keeps our practice fresh.

For our journal exercises today,

I ask you to remember,

In the last week to a month,

What was one thing you felt deeply in your bones grateful for?

And one thing that you felt deeply in your bones that you appreciated?

With love,

Appreciation,

And gratitude,

This is Karen.

Reviews

Now I feel like exploring the difference in my own perspective. Thank you for the encouragement and the food for thought.

Just brilliant... reflections, lightening up the day, profound in the semantics for practicing Metta. Thank you.