Being Grateful

Are you wondering how to gracefully enter the winter months?
There are plenty of people who look forward to winter and the colder months. However, if this is not your particular constitution, I want to invite you to use gratitude as a tool to smoothly undergo this inevitable time of year in this part of the world. Let’s keep that gratitude from Thanksgiving alive!

In my home, we have created a habitual ritual (fun rhyme) of asking each other during dinnertime, “what are you grateful for?” It’s particularly cute when my 2 year old asks in his high pitch chipmunk voice. And he always has his standard answer, “I’m grateful for my mommy and my daddy and my family.” Then my husband and I answer with whatever things we are thankful for at that time.

I feel so blessed that there are so many things in my life to be grateful for. Some are simple, like water from the shower or the sink. Some are more complicated, like having the wherewithal to stay present and accept my emotions as they arise, knowing that I am connected to a deep love and light that withstands anything.

How does gratitude, or lack thereof play out in your body?

Choosing to be grateful can certainly can put your mind at ease, but let’s check in on a deeper level. If you start to think about a dreary cold winter, do you feel constriction in your body? Where do you feel it? When you begin to practice an attitude of gratitude (one of my favorite rhymes), do you feel an opening? Where do you feel that? What is it like? Resistance to “what is” will most likely bring constriction and a “frozenness” to your body. And choosing gratitude and love will bring a sense of opening and warmth to your body.

I invite you to make the choice to stoke your inner fires and start this practice in your home if you haven’t already. And check out my Top Ten Tips for Wintertime for some other ideas of how to stay well at this darker colder time of year.