Day 36 –

Today we’re moving on to our sixth week – wow. How has it been going? Have you noticed yet that you’re thinking about gratitude more often? Is it starting to creep into your daily experience of life?

Here’s a reminder where you can share your thoughts over at the Week Six Discussion Thread.

This week we’re looking at the power of the Monkey Mind – and its addiction to story-telling; specifically the stories we tell ourselves.

Don’t believe every story your mind tells you.

One of the things I have found with one-to-one clients and seminar students over the past decade as an NLP Trainer and Meditation Teacher is that they’re all at least as good as I am at telling themselves stories.

We have spent decades training our minds to evaluate, discuss, critique, re-tell, ‘what-if’, rehearse and even embellish stories about what goes on in life.

It’s not the experience that hurts; it’s the story we tell ourselves about it.

These stories often run in the background, half-unnoticed, while we’re doing other things. But they’re there. And the thing about a story is that:

Whether you experience the event for real or just tell yourself a story about it, those thoughts trigger the same shifts in your body and emotions, as though the event were really happening.

So if we tell ourselves an angry story, we get angry sensations in our body and feel angry emotions.

Tell yourself a happy story and your auto-pilot happy hormones are released, triggering the physical and emotions experience of happiness for you.

For this week’s Gratitude Project, we’re going to experiment with deliberately using this auto-pilot response, to shift our experience of life. It’s really simple. And it’s a great way to tame and retrain your Monkey Mind to concentrate on gratitude, rather than complaining. Full ‘how to’ is at the bottom of today’s message.

I’m really excited about the messages I have to share with you this week, because they really have the potential for you to make shifts in your thought patterns, that will last for the rest of your life. All you need to do is to dive in and experiment with the techniques I’ll be sharing with you!

I hope you really enjoy the week 6 Gratitude Project!
Grazie!

Namaste,
Clare

P.S. If you are having any techy issues or have any questions that aren’t answered in the forum threads, please let us know by replying to this email and a member of my team will get back to you, to sort things.

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Week 6 Project: Make A Daily Date With A Gratitude Story

1. Deliberately choose a time in your diary, each day this week, to play with this exercise.
   Set an alarm. Do whatever it takes to make sure you keep that date. It only takes a few minutes, and setting a definite time means it will happen. Leaving it to chance means it probably won’t.
2. Take a ‘snapshot’.
   Pause for a moment and notice how you’re feeling – physically and emotionally. Notice what your thoughts are. Notice the current tone of voice in your head.
3. Think about an event that has happened (any time!) which triggers grateful emotions for you.
   Really allow yourself to dive into that experience. Feel the emotions you were feeling. Think the thoughts you were thinking. Hear the subtleties of the voice in your head shift. Notice the change in colour and vibrancy of any images you are seeing. Smile!
4. Now for the fun! Imagine you are telling this story to someone else.
   Talk your way through the story, in your head (or out loud, if you have a willing audience!). Really help your story come to life. Share all the best bits. If it helps you dive into it, turn up the dial a few notches. For this exercise, it doesn’t matter if you embellish a little. It’s about getting into the habit of shifting the tone of our stories.
5. When you feel you have finished, smile and thank yourself for taking the time.
   Repeat your ‘snapshot’ from #2.
   How have things changed?
   Can you sense a shift?
   Would you like to share your experience?
   Here’s a special discussion thread in the online community:
   Make a date with a gratitude story.

Day 37 – How To Get Gratitude To Wave A Magic Wand With Your Monkey Mind

Today I’d like to share with you a simple, yet profound, quote from Marcus Aurelius. For me, it sums up why I’m sharing this Miracle of Gratitude journey with you:

“The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.”

I remember a dear friend, about a decade ago, asking me how on earth she could shift her thoughts from negative to positive, when she had spent a lifetime training herself to think about the bad bits.

Much of my work over the past ten years has been invested in finding simple, practical, highly effective answers to her question. It’s one of the reasons I decided to spend this year creating and sharing The Miracle Of Gratitude.

The quality of our thoughts has a profound impact on our experience of life.

Telling your Monkey Mind to stop thinking thoughts that make you feel miserable doesn’t work.

Your mind can’t process a ‘negative’.

What do I mean?

I mean that if you shout at a child, “Don’t run!” it first has to imagine ‘running’ and then the ‘not’, by which time the fall has probably happened. If you tell them, “Don’t fall over!” then it first has to imagine falling over, and you can guess the rest.

Tell your Monkey Mind, “Don’t think negative thoughts!” and it first has to imagine the ‘negative thoughts’ bit and… you guessed it… it never gets round to processing the “don’t“!

One of the reasons why The Miracle Of Gratitude can be so powerful is because it gives you something to fill the vacuum; it gives you a structured training course for your mind, to help it gently retune from whatever its old radio station was to one that more often thinks of positive, happy, uplifting and grateful things.

It becomes like a ‘magic wand’ to help you turn your thoughts around, if they’re heading in a direction that you no longer want.

You’re not trying to ‘banish’ the sad or angry thoughts.

You’re simply looking to tip the balance in favour of the happy and more empowering ones, one day at a time; one thought at a time.

And what better way to do it than to tune yourself in to gratitude?

I’d love to hear how you’re getting on this week. Which gratitude project are you playing with? Are you still taking a moment to experience Gratitude Minutes? Do you have any insights? Experiences? Questions? Answers?
Here’s where to share:

Week 6: which changes have you noticed in your life?.

Grazie!

Namaste,
Clare

P.S. Forgotten your password for the forum? Your username is this email address. Your password is %%PASSWORD%% 🙂

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Week 6 Project: Make A Daily Date With A Gratitude Story

1. Deliberately choose a time in your diary, each day this week, to play with this exercise.
   Set an alarm. Do whatever it takes to make sure you keep that date. It only takes a few minutes, and setting a definite time means it will happen. Leaving it to chance means it probably won’t.
2. Take a ‘snapshot’.
   Pause for a moment and notice how you’re feeling – physically and emotionally. Notice what your thoughts are. Notice the current tone of voice in your head.
3. Think about an event that has happened (any time!) which triggers grateful emotions for you.
   Really allow yourself to dive into that experience. Feel the emotions you were feeling. Think the thoughts you were thinking. Hear the subtleties of the voice in your head shift. Notice the change in colour and vibrancy of any images you are seeing. Smile!
4. Now for the fun! Imagine you are telling this story to someone else.
   Talk your way through the story, in your head (or out loud, if you have a willing audience!). Really help your story come to life. Share all the best bits. If it helps you dive into it, turn up the dial a few notches. For this exercise, it doesn’t matter if you embellish a little. It’s about getting into the habit of shifting the tone of our stories.
5. When you feel you have finished, smile and thank yourself for taking the time.
   Repeat your ‘snapshot’ from #2.
   How have things changed?
   Can you sense a shift?
   Would you like to share your experience?
   Here’s a special discussion thread in the online community:
   Make a date with a gratitude story.

Day 38 –

Just a quickie today, to see how you’re getting on.

This week’s project is specially designed to help you easily shift the habitual tone of the stories you tell yourself.

It’s a technique that is easy to do, but can have profound effects on your experience of life.

Have you had a chance to play with it yet?

Got any questions? Any insights?
Make A Daily Date With A Gratitude Story.

I’d love to hear from you.

Why is it so important to tell yourself stories of gratitude?

When we tell ourselves a story, it triggers the same emotional and physiological responses in your body as if the event were really happening.

If you tell yourself a stressful story, your unconscious mind will think stressed-out thoughts and fire off its ‘fight or flight’ chain reaction, flooding your body with stress hormones, causing you to feel even more stressed.

If you tell yourself a happy or grateful story, you mind and body fire off all of those gorgeous endorphin-type chain reactions, creating happy sensations in your body, nurturing happier thoughts and leaving you feeling great.

And you get more of what you think about. Tell yourself a sad or angry story and your unconscious mind automatically goes through its filing system to find more stories that suit that mood. Tell yourself happier stories and the filing cabinet gets opened at ‘happy’, making it more likely that you’ll carry on telling yourself other happy stories.

These stories impact our the filters we use to experience life. If you’re regularly telling yourself grumpy stories, you’re training your unconscious mind to look out for more of them, so it spots them. Keep telling yourself happy stories and your unconscious mind gets the message that they’re the kind of thing you want to spot more of, so it does.

This stuff isn’t ‘woo woo’. It’s medical science.

So why on earth would you want to continue telling yourself icky stories when you could flood your world with gratitude? 🙂

Want to give it a go, right now? The details of the week six Gratitude Project are at the bottom of this message.

Grazie!

Namaste,
Clare

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Week 6 Project: Make A Daily Date With A Gratitude Story

1. Deliberately choose a time in your diary, each day this week, to play with this exercise.
   Set an alarm. Do whatever it takes to make sure you keep that date. It only takes a few minutes, and setting a definite time means it will happen. Leaving it to chance means it probably won’t.
2. Take a ‘snapshot’.
   Pause for a moment and notice how you’re feeling – physically and emotionally. Notice what your thoughts are. Notice the current tone of voice in your head.
3. Think about an event that has happened (any time!) which triggers grateful emotions for you.
   Really allow yourself to dive into that experience. Feel the emotions you were feeling. Think the thoughts you were thinking. Hear the subtleties of the voice in your head shift. Notice the change in colour and vibrancy of any images you are seeing. Smile!
4. Now for the fun! Imagine you are telling this story to someone else.
   Talk your way through the story, in your head (or out loud, if you have a willing audience!). Really help your story come to life. Share all the best bits. If it helps you dive into it, turn up the dial a few notches. For this exercise, it doesn’t matter if you embellish a little. It’s about getting into the habit of shifting the tone of our stories.
5. When you feel you have finished, smile and thank yourself for taking the time.
   Repeat your ‘snapshot’ from #2.
   How have things changed?
   Can you sense a shift?
   Would you like to share your experience?
   Here’s a special discussion thread in the online community:
   Make a date with a gratitude story.

Day 39 –
Today I want to dive into the wider depths of the Monkey Mind, by looking at our blocks to gratitude.

I remember when I first started experimenting with gratitude – and I have a confession to make here – I didn’t feel gratitude. Ok, maybe a twinge, but nothing I’d have written home about. But I did feel a very powerful emotion and, frankly, it scared me. The more I tried to think about gratitude, and the more people told me to think about gratitude, the more I felt this emotion.

What was it?

In my case, it was anger. And if people stepped over that airy-fairy-woo-woo-ooh-isn’t-life-just-so-blissful-dahhling-mwah-mwah line, then the anger transformed into rage.

But I was an NLP Trainer and a Meditation & Mindfulness Teacher – how on earth could this be happening to me?

Simple.

The gratitude practices I was doing (mostly very deep meditation exercises which we won’t touch on here until the final few weeks), were pressing my buttons.

The thing about opening your heart to gratitude – opening your life to living through the lens of gratitude – is that anything blocking that lens comes up for a deep clear out. And sometimes that’s a bit of a challenge, especially if you’re not expecting it.

Why am I tell you all this? Because I want you to know that whatever is happening for you on this course, right here, right now, is ok.

If you’re up in the blissed-out zone, cool. If you’re down with the rage, guilt, shame, anger, hurt, resentment or whatever else is bubbling away, that’s cool too (even if it doesn’t feel like it at the moment).

These emotions are there to tell you that an old block is ready to be released.

What blocks our gratitude?

It can be old hurts, grudges or resentments.
It can be limiting beliefs that we picked up along the way through life.
It can be excuses – perhaps we’re scared of how fab life will feel, once gratitude is running through each breath? Or how our loved-ones will react?
It could be that we’re addicted to the adrenalin caused by our old dramas and stories.

Want to find out what your blocks might be?

For the next few moments, pause and take 3 deep sighing breaths – breathing out with an ‘ahhh’ sound, as you release tension and relax.

Now ask yourself: am I blocking my feelings of gratitude in any way?

Don’t bother listening to your Monkey Mind for an answer. Listen to your body. Become aware of the physical sensations. Any tightening in your body in response to that question indicates a ‘yes’.

Go to the area of the body where you noticed the sensation and ask it two questions that might feel a bit strange, but it’s important to go with your instinct and let the answer bubble up:

What is the emotion that goes with this sensation?

then…

What message does this have for me about how I’m blocking the flow of gratitude in my life?

Please (pretty important one today) go to the forum to share your answers. I’ve got resources I can share with you to help with most of the common blocks and most of them can start off clearing and releasing stuff within the next 5 minutes. You’ll also find it surprising how many people are running the same blocks as you. It’s all completely normal. What isn’t normal is choosing to set yourself free to do something about it 🙂

What are your gratitude blocks? And what to do about them?

See you there!

Thank you for being part of this.

Grazie!

Namaste,
Clare

P.S. Here is a quick run-down of some of the resources that you could get started with today:

Got strong emotions coming up?: How to deal with difficult emotions in under 5 minutes.

Got anger coming up?: Feeling angry? Why there’s no need to feel guilty – and what you can do about it.

Spotted some limiting beliefs?: Fed Up Of Being Held Back By Limiting Beliefs? How To Let One Go In The Next Sixty Seconds

Spotted some excuses?: Why dumping your excuses is just a thought away.

Need to release an old hurt or resentment?: Let it go – 10 minute visualisation to help you let go, heal and move on.

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Week 6 Project: Make A Daily Date With A Gratitude Story

1. Deliberately choose a time in your diary, each day this week, to play with this exercise.
   Set an alarm. Do whatever it takes to make sure you keep that date. It only takes a few minutes, and setting a definite time means it will happen. Leaving it to chance means it probably won’t.
2. Take a ‘snapshot’.
   Pause for a moment and notice how you’re feeling – physically and emotionally. Notice what your thoughts are. Notice the current tone of voice in your head.
3. Think about an event that has happened (any time!) which triggers grateful emotions for you.
   Really allow yourself to dive into that experience. Feel the emotions you were feeling. Think the thoughts you were thinking. Hear the subtleties of the voice in your head shift. Notice the change in colour and vibrancy of any images you are seeing. Smile!
4. Now for the fun! Imagine you are telling this story to someone else.
   Talk your way through the story, in your head (or out loud, if you have a willing audience!). Really help your story come to life. Share all the best bits. If it helps you dive into it, turn up the dial a few notches. For this exercise, it doesn’t matter if you embellish a little. It’s about getting into the habit of shifting the tone of our stories.
5. When you feel you have finished, smile and thank yourself for taking the time.
   Repeat your ‘snapshot’ from #2.
   How have things changed?
   Can you sense a shift?
   Would you like to share your experience?
   Here’s a special discussion thread in the online community:
   Make a date with a gratitude story.

Day 40 – Is it time to stop feeding your Monkey Mind?

Have you ever noticed how much we all love telling stories? I’m not talking Jackanory here – we’re much more subtle.

Our ‘monkey mind’ (the part of us that does the running commentary, whatever we’re doing) is rarely off-duty and relishes a little drama. It believes that life without our own personal soap opera would be about as exciting as Christmas without the cranberry sauce.

And the thing is that the monkey mind is far from being a neutral observer. It much prefers to pass comment on everything that’s going on, feeding the currently-favoured emotion like bellows on an open fire.

And I had a lovely reminder of this a little while ago.

I was feeling particularly grumpy and glum (yes, running a blog on happiness and stuff doesn’t mean I’m Pollyanna all the time!). I was in the middle of a major melt-down of some renovation work at home, but grumpy & glum really weren’t called-for. And, curiously, the more I put my “fix it” hat on and tried to rationalise myself out of the emotion, the worse I felt.

Then the words of a Buddhist meditation teacher I once knew came to mind.

He used to tell me that:

“The mind can only hold a thought for 60 seconds, then it will disappear, unless you feed it with another thought.“

Of course, back then,my rational brain used to object and point out that I was perfectly capable of holding a thought or emotion for as long as I chose. But deep down, I secretly knew that it was only because I kept feeding it. And now, as a meditation teacher, I know the truth of the fact that:

Any thought or emotion, left to its own devices, will eventually complete its cycle and go.

But if you resist it and fight it, you are feeding it and it is going to grow. As Carl Jung told us:

“What you resist persists.“

And that’s exactly what I was doing that time, when I was feeling down. By trying to analyse and understand why I was feeling the way I was, my monkey mind got to stoke those fires way before each 60 second segment was through. And, before I knew it, it was 2 a.m. and my frustration was growing into full-blown anger.

Yet had I just accepted the emotion of frustration when it was tiny, it would have quickly moved on and I’d have felt better within minutes.

Instead, I kept telling myself more and more stories that wound me up further, constantly trying to paddle upstream, against the flow.

I wasn’t just thinking one grumpy and annoyed thought – I was feeding an army of thousands of them. Feeling happier and at least ‘ok’ about things didn’t stand a chance, while I was actively inviting grumpy thoughts into my mind.

Just letting go and going with the emotional flow would have allowed me to choose a thought that helped me feel slightly better. Then another one – and another one. And I found that, if my Monkey Mind told me it couldn’t think of any happy thoughts (and, believe me, it tried that game!), gratitude was always my ‘get out of jail free card’. Think of something you feel grateful for and you’ll turn things around.

That’s why your daily Gratitude Minutes are so important – they train you to be able to quickly find things that take you back to your inner space of gratitude, at will, whenever you want to go there. It’s like re-routing the auto-pilot.

One happier thought at a time. And we’re figuring out where that leads, aren’t we?

“Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.”
~ Alphonse Karr

If you’re finding it challenging to find material for your gratitude stories this week, I hope this quote from Alphonse Karr helps.

Remember:

Whatever happens in life, we can choose to tell ourselves stories about the thorns; or we can choose to tell ourselves stories about the roses. Which are you choosing today?

How about letting me know how you’re getting on, via the forum: Week Six – How are you getting on?

Grazie!

Namaste,
Clare

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Week 6 Project: Make A Daily Date With A Gratitude Story

1. Deliberately choose a time in your diary, each day this week, to play with this exercise.
   Set an alarm. Do whatever it takes to make sure you keep that date. It only takes a few minutes, and setting a definite time means it will happen. Leaving it to chance means it probably won’t.
2. Take a ‘snapshot’.
   Pause for a moment and notice how you’re feeling – physically and emotionally. Notice what your thoughts are. Notice the current tone of voice in your head.
3. Think about an event that has happened (any time!) which triggers grateful emotions for you.
   Really allow yourself to dive into that experience. Feel the emotions you were feeling. Think the thoughts you were thinking. Hear the subtleties of the voice in your head shift. Notice the change in colour and vibrancy of any images you are seeing. Smile!
4. Now for the fun! Imagine you are telling this story to someone else.
   Talk your way through the story, in your head (or out loud, if you have a willing audience!). Really help your story come to life. Share all the best bits. If it helps you dive into it, turn up the dial a few notches. For this exercise, it doesn’t matter if you embellish a little. It’s about getting into the habit of shifting the tone of our stories.
5. When you feel you have finished, smile and thank yourself for taking the time.
   Repeat your ‘snapshot’ from #2.
   How have things changed?
   Can you sense a shift?
   Would you like to share your experience?
   Here’s a special discussion thread in the online community:
   Make a date with a gratitude story.

Day 41 – Want A Quick Fix For An Over-Active Monkey Mind?

Today I’d like to share two things with you – a quick gratitude fix for an over-active Monkey Mind and a way to use gratitude to overcome your fears. And I’m going to be brief about it. Are you ready?!

First the quick gratitude fix for when your Monkey Mind is going bonkers and getting in the way of your gratitude:

Draw a picture.
Yup.
You read right.

If your Monkey Mind is bouncing through the jungle, telling you stories of stress and woe, press an instant ‘pause’ button by drawing a picture of something you feel grateful for.

Don’t worry about what Van Gogh might say about your art. That’s not what counts. (My art teacher told me to give the subject up when I was 12, because I couldn’t draw a convincing cat. 3 decades later I finally ‘get’ that surely her job was to help me learn how to do it? But I let it cloud my drawing for decades in between! 🙂 ).

Seriously – it’s the physical act of grabbing a pen and doodling that we’re looking for here.

Why does it work?
Many reasons, including:

• It gets you out of telling yourself a story and into doing something
• The physical kinaesthetic act of drawing takes you out of your thinking mind into your body, taking the mind by surprise and pressing ‘pause’.
• A picture tells speaks a thousand words – use that picture to drown out the Monkey Mind’s words, if it hasn’t shut up yet!

How about playing with this one, right now? The more often you practise, the easier it will feel if you need to do it to tame your Monkey Mind.

Now for a way to use gratitude to overcome your fears.

I’d like to share with you a simple quote that challenges the way we think about stuff we’re scared of – all the things we would love to do and create, if we weren’t afraid of failure or rejection.

“Stop being afraid of what could go wrong. And start feeling grateful for what is going right.”

Given what we have talked about lately, with the way that gratitude retunes our mind’s radio station, how might playing with this quote’s advice impact your current experience of life?

Wishing you a wonderful day, full of things to feel grateful for!

Grazie!

Namaste,
Clare

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Week 6 Project: Make A Daily Date With A Gratitude Story

1. Deliberately choose a time in your diary, each day this week, to play with this exercise.
   Set an alarm. Do whatever it takes to make sure you keep that date. It only takes a few minutes, and setting a definite time means it will happen. Leaving it to chance means it probably won’t.
2. Take a ‘snapshot’.
   Pause for a moment and notice how you’re feeling – physically and emotionally. Notice what your thoughts are. Notice the current tone of voice in your head.
3. Think about an event that has happened (any time!) which triggers grateful emotions for you.
   Really allow yourself to dive into that experience. Feel the emotions you were feeling. Think the thoughts you were thinking. Hear the subtleties of the voice in your head shift. Notice the change in colour and vibrancy of any images you are seeing. Smile!
4. Now for the fun! Imagine you are telling this story to someone else.
   Talk your way through the story, in your head (or out loud, if you have a willing audience!). Really help your story come to life. Share all the best bits. If it helps you dive into it, turn up the dial a few notches. For this exercise, it doesn’t matter if you embellish a little. It’s about getting into the habit of shifting the tone of our stories.
5. When you feel you have finished, smile and thank yourself for taking the time.
   Repeat your ‘snapshot’ from #2.
   How have things changed?
   Can you sense a shift?
   Would you like to share your experience?
   Here’s a special discussion thread in the online community:
   Make a date with a gratitude story.

Day 42 –

So how has week six been so far? How are you getting on with the Monkey Mind exercises? Care to share? What are your insights and questions for week six?

Today I want to talk about retuning your inner radio station.

As we discussed a few days ago, the types of stories we tell ourselves attract more of those stories into our lives.

When we spend time complaining about what’s going wrong, what others are or aren’t doing and how much of what we want we don’t have / how much we don’t want what we have, guess what happens?

We are programming our minds to focus on more of the ‘bad stuff’.
It’s as though we’re tuning a radio station to play us a ‘life soundtrack’ of compalining, ‘don’t want’ and ‘don’t like’.

Fortunately there’s a really simple solution.

“If you would just stop analysing everything and would just look for things to appreciate, you would live happily ever after.”
Abraham Hicks

Instead of complaining about what’s bad / wrong / what we don’t have, focus on what’s going well, what we do have, what we do like and we’ll be waving a magic wand, setting the filters in our brain to spot more of that.

When we do this, it’s as though a miracle occurs:

“Whatever you appreciate and give thanks for will increase in your life.”~ Sanaya Roman

It feels like the things we appreciate are growing, because we’re giving them more of our ‘head space’. But it also physically occurs too, because we’re giving our mind the instruction to notice and to create chance for more of what we appreciate to ‘arrive’. We’re more likely to spot the open doors and opportunities that allow more of it into our experience of live. We’re more likely to say the things and take the actions that bring what we appreciate into our world.

The simple act of saying thank you for what we have – of appreciating and feeling good about how our life is – shifts our radar and retunes that radio station.

Each time you catch yourself complaining, how about pausing for a moment and asking yourself, “What could I choose to feel grateful for, in this moment?”
“Where could I find sunshine in this?

There will always be something.

This is one of the many reasons why your daily ‘gratitude minutes’ are so incredibly important – and potentially life-changing. They are training your mind to consistently allow more of what you feel grateful for into your experience of life.

Surely that’s worth a minute a day of your time?

Want to join in with the gratitude hashtag revolution?

If you’re into Facebook, I’m wondering whether you’d like to join in and share some of your daily Gratitude Minutes in your Facebook status?

Here’s what we’re up to:

1. Make your first Facebook post of the day 3 things you feel grateful for.
2. Use the ‘hashtag’ #miracleofgratitude at the end of your post.
3. And / or tag the page @MiracleOfGratitude to get a live-link to the Facebook page on your post.
4. Encourage your friends to do the same – or to post comments about things they feel grateful for after your post.
5. Watch the wave of gratitude spread around the world!

Want to see some of the current posts? Here’s the search link:
www.facebook.com/hashtag/miracleofgratitude

Grazie!

Namaste,
Clare

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Week 6 Project: Make A Daily Date With A Gratitude Story

1. Deliberately choose a time in your diary, each day this week, to play with this exercise.
   Set an alarm. Do whatever it takes to make sure you keep that date. It only takes a few minutes, and setting a definite time means it will happen. Leaving it to chance means it probably won’t.
2. Take a ‘snapshot’.
   Pause for a moment and notice how you’re feeling – physically and emotionally. Notice what your thoughts are. Notice the current tone of voice in your head.
3. Think about an event that has happened (any time!) which triggers grateful emotions for you.
   Really allow yourself to dive into that experience. Feel the emotions you were feeling. Think the thoughts you were thinking. Hear the subtleties of the voice in your head shift. Notice the change in colour and vibrancy of any images you are seeing. Smile!
4. Now for the fun! Imagine you are telling this story to someone else.
   Talk your way through the story, in your head (or out loud, if you have a willing audience!). Really help your story come to life. Share all the best bits. If it helps you dive into it, turn up the dial a few notches. For this exercise, it doesn’t matter if you embellish a little. It’s about getting into the habit of shifting the tone of our stories.
5. When you feel you have finished, smile and thank yourself for taking the time.
   Repeat your ‘snapshot’ from #2.
   How have things changed?
   Can you sense a shift?
   Would you like to share your experience?
   Here’s a special discussion thread in the online community:
   Make a date with a gratitude story.

Day 29 –

Welcome to Week 5! How are you getting on? Are you ready to move on yet?

By the way, if ever you feel you need to pause for breath, that’s ok. There’s no rush with all of this. If you want to hang around and spend a bit more time on a particular week, that’s fine. Just keep going. You’ll still receive your daily emails – simply put them somewhere safe and you can move on when you’re ready.

So today we’re moving on to the body! We’re going to dive in and discover the transformation that gratitude can create for you in the way you think about your body, how it feels and even how it looks.

Today I’d like to start by inviting you to spot the stories you are currently telling yourself about your body. When you think about your body, what’s the first thing that comes to mind…? And the next thing…? And the next thing…?

This isn’t about judging or evaluating what’s coming up for you. It’s about raising your awareness of your body-story habits.

Why?

Because once we know where we are – which stories we’re telling ourselves about our bodies – we can decide where we want to go – which stories we would rather be hearing.

Most of us are stuck in the habit of telling ourselves that our bodies – or at least bits of them – are bad. We’re good at reminding ourselves about everything that our bodies can’t do; everything that’s wrong; everything that aches; every bit that’s wobbly, when perhaps we’d prefer it to be firmer. But it’s just a habit.

We could dive off on a tangent and over-analyse how we all got to this point – thinking our bodies are bad / ugly / too wobbly / not good enough. We could look for outside sources to blame, such as ‘the media’ or our parents or ‘society’. But that won’t change anything.

The only way we can change the way we feel about our bodies is by changing the way we think about them.

Thoughts trigger the biochemical reactions in the body that trigger our emotions and behaviours. So if you want to change your outside (or even get ok with your ‘outside’!), then you need to change your ‘inside’ – your thoughts and beliefs about your body.

After all, your body has got you this far, so it can’t be that bad, can it?

If you want to shift how you’re feeling about your body – and experience the transformation that can create in other areas of your life, then it’s time for our old friend, gratitude!

Instead of telling yourself stories about what your body can’t do, it’s time retrain your Monkey Mind to tell yourself stories about what it can do. And that’s the whole point of this week’s gratitude exercises and the week five Gratitude Project.

My invitation to you today is…

Simply become aware of the stories you are telling yourself about your body. That’s it. Don’t try to change them. Don’t tell yourself they’re wrong. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Treat it as a chance to practise awareness and acceptance. What are your body-stories?

And then I encourage you to do this week’s Gratitude Project. It’s a guided visualisation and deep relaxation, taking you step by step through connecting with your body with a sense of gratitude, rather than a sense of judgement. It takes about 12 minutes (it’s a MP3 you can listen to online or – much better – download and listen to while you’re lying down and relaxing). And it has the added bonus that you’ll feel more relaxed and energised afterwards!

Wishing you a bouncingly beautiful day.

Obrigada!

[CLARE SIG]

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[WEEK 5 PROJECT]
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Day 30 –

How did you get on yesterday with spotting your body-stories?

Any that you liked? Any that you’d like to shift?

Today we’re moving on to a technique that can really help to make a difference.

But, before we start, I want to reassure you that wherever your current body-stories are at, that’s ok. This isn’t about ‘getting rid’ of them, or changing them. It’s about choosing new stories – some that are more empowering, more uplifting, more motivating, based on gratitude and love, rather than fear and rejection.

Are you up for it?

Then here’s a technique I invite you to play with today:

• During the day today, pause at a random point to notice what you body is doing for you in that moment.
• Become aware of the part of your body that is the ‘leader’ in that moment and say ‘thank you’ to it.
• It doesn’t matter whether it was brushing your teeth or taking you up the stairs at work, or reading this message 🙂 say ‘thank you’ to it.

Repeat this at random points during your day and you’ll soon be retraining your Monkey Mind to focus on feeling grateful for your body.

Let me know how you get on with this. I’d love to hear from you. Week Five – Any Insights Or Questions?

Obrigada!

[CLARE SIG]

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[WEEK 5 PROJECT]
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Day 31 –

How are you getting on with the beginning of our body gratitude week? Any questions? Any insights? Can I tempt you to share them? I’d love to hear from you: Week Five – Any Insights Or Questions?

Today I’d like to share with you one of my favourite mindfulness techniques, which can easily be transformed into a super-portable do-it-while-you’re-busy gratitude exercise: mindful walking.

Walking mindfully is a massive topic, and can be done in many ways, so today I’m going to share with you the core of the technique, for you to experiment with, adding a new flavour to your gratitude practices.

START: This walking can be done anywhere – outside in nature or even walking up the stairs or around your kitchen. Choose somewhere that you can be on your own, for the first few times.

1. Take a ‘snapshot’ of how you are feeling – physically, emotionally, mind-wise. We’ll come back to this at the end.
2. Start walking. Slow your speed down by about 10%. This makes it easier to concentrate.
3. Focus all of your awareness on your feet. Become fully aware of the physical sensations of your feet on the floor, as they connect with the Earth.
   [Doing this barefoot on grass or sand is a special treat – though not essential!]
4. If your attention wanders, gently guide it back to feeling the physical, tactile connection of your feet with the earth.
   • When you’re in the rhythm of it, choose to spend 30 seconds or a minute, becoming aware of the physical sensations in your body. Say a silent ‘thank you’ to your body.
   • Notice your balance – just feel those amazing muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, joints and nerves doing such an incredible job of keeping you safe and upright. Say a silent ‘thank you’ to your body.
   • Notice your arms moving – you don’t have to change anything; just become fully aware of the physcial movement. Say a silent ‘thank you’ to your body.
   • Notice your posture. Feel the physical sensations, if you tweak the way you are holding your body. Say a silent ‘thank you’ to your body.
   • Really feel the soles of your feet with each step, as they take your weight as you walk. Say a silent ‘thank you’ to your body.
   • Then, when you’re ready, return to simply being aware of each step, connecting with the Earth. Say a silent ‘thank you’ to your body.

END: when you feel ready, release your practice and take that snapshot again. How are you feeling – physically, emotionally, mind-wise? Compare that to the snapshot from the beginning. With practise, you’ll notice that the mindful walking makes a tangible difference.

What did you notice? How did this experience impact you? Any insights? Any questions? Please feel free to share: Mindful Walking With Gratitude.

Obrigada!

[CLARE SIG]

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[WEEK 5 PROJECT]
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Day 32 –
How was the gratitude-based mindful walking yesterday? Did you enjoy it? Any insights? Remember that these techniques are powerful, but they take practice. So you might have found it tough to remember it all yesterday, but if it resonated for you, how about doing 10 mindful steps each day for the next week or so and watching how things shift? Here’s where you can share your experiences of it: Mindful Walking With Gratitude.

Today I’m not sharing a new technique with you. I’m asking you a question.

How different would each moment of your day feel, if you treated your body as though you were grateful for it?

How would you sit?
How would you stand?
How would you move?
What kinds of thoughts would you be thinking?
What would you eat and drink?
How would you breathe?

Just curious!

Allow yourself to pause for a few moments and really consider your answer to that question – how different would each moment of your day feel, if you treated your body as though you were grateful for it?

Let the answers bubble up. Really dive into the experience. Allow it to wash through you for the next minute or two.

And, guess what? Now you have imagined it, you can be it. It’s as simple as choosing to flick a switch. You just imagined – and created – your very own action plan for shifting how you experience your body. Cool, eh?

Could I tempt you to share your insights on this exercise with me: Shifting your experience of your body.

Obrigada!

[CLARE SIG]

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[WEEK 5 PROJECT]
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Day 33 –

How did you get on with yesterday’s exercise?

And have you had a chance to do this week’s relaxation Gratitude Project yet?

Got any insights? Any questions? How about popping by the week 5 forum thread and sharing?

Today I’d like to share with you another way of shifting your body-stories from criticism to gratitude. It’s a way of appreciating the wonder of your body, no matter where it might ache or feel stiff or have lumps and bumps.

Gratitude Mindful Movement

Pick a time today when you’re moving – it doesn’t matter what kind of movement. It could be walking, brushing your teeth, washing up, opening your car door – anything – you choose.

While you’re doing the movement, slow down and allow yourself to notice the physical components of that movement in your body.

Allow yourself to become fully aware of each joint, each tendon and ligament, each muscle, each fibre, each tiny movement that builds to create the full movement.

Become aware of the complexity your body is managing in that simple movement. And the harmony with which each part plays its piece.

And then say ‘thank you’, allowing a gentle wave of gratitude to wash through the movement, as you appreciate your body’s complexity and harmony, its balance and its service to you.

What did you notice?

Isn’t your body amazing?

How’s that for a new body-story?

Enjoy!
Obrigada!

[CLARE SIG]

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[WEEK 5 PROJECT]
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Day 34 –
How have you been finding this week’s techniques? And the week five Gratitude Project? Any insights? Any questions? Here’s where to share: How are you getting on in week 5.

I’m curious: when you have been doing these exercises, what has come up for you regarding aches and pains?

Most of us have them, either from time-to-time or most of the time. So how do you handle gratitude for the bits you don’t feel grateful for?

Today I’d like to share with you a simple process that can help.

Working with gratitude to help reduce aches and pains

Before I start, obviously this process is meant to help, but that doesn’t mean it should replace professional medical advice. If something hurts, and the hurt doesn’t go away when you change position or release the tension in the area, then your body is trying to tell you something. Please don’t ignore it!

1. Become aware of the area that aches or hurts – just the physical sensations, not the Monkey Mind’s body-stories about them. Allow your focus to settle.
2. Imagine the region wrapped in a gentle, soft golden light. Allow that light to fill the area, softening and releasing tension and allowing your body to relax.
3. Open your heart and connect with that area of your body, with love. Send it a thank you for the things it can do, rather than rejecting it for the things it can’t.
4. If your Monkey Mind tries to tell body-stories of everything that’s wrong, that’s ok. Just say ‘thank you’ again. Allow yourself to embrace that area of your body and to accept how things are, just in this moment, softening and releasing.
5. Breathe in and out of that area. Breathe in ‘thank you’. Breathe out and release tension and pain. Continue with this for a few moments, until you feel a sense of relief or release.

What did you notice?
How did the physical sensations change?
How did your thoughts change?
Any questions?
Any insights?
Here’s where to share: Working with gratitude for aches and pains.

Obrigada!

[CLARE SIG]

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[WEEK 5 PROJECT]
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Day 35 –

Welcome to the final day of week 5. Today I want to share with you the secret to life-long body-gratitude:

Give gratitude to your body, treating it like the temple of your soul, and it will reward you every day, for the rest of your life.

If you treated your body like the temple of your soul, what might you do differently?
What might you eat differently?
How might you move differently?
How might you rest differently?

Allow yourself a few moments to ponder those questions.

It’s a really useful way of catching yourself on auto-pilot, if you’re about to do something that wouldn’t be good for you. Simply ask yourself:

If I believed that my body is the temple of my soul, would I eat this? Would I do that?

Can you imagine how that might influence your choices?

Notice how much easier it is to feel grateful to your body, if you treat it as the temple of your soul?

Here’s where you can share your insights on this one – and find out what others are thinking: If your body were the temple of your soul…

And to finish our fifth week, I’d like to go back to the short exercise we did on the first day of this week, so you can feel how things have shifted:

Pause for a moment and become aware of the stories you are telling yourself about your body.
Don’t try to change them.
Don’t tell yourself they’re wrong.
Don’t beat yourself up about it. Treat it as a chance to practise awareness and acceptance. What are your body-stories?
I’m curious: how have they changed this week?
Here’s where to share your insights and questions: Week 5.

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s techniques. I’d love to hear how you got on, via the forum. Next week (tomorrow!) we’re moving on to the realm of the Monkey Mind. And we’ve got some fun in store!

Obrigada!

[CLARE SIG]

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[WEEK 5 PROJECT]
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Hi %%FIRST_NAME%%,
Welcome to Meditation For Parents!

I’m really excited to have you join us for this 21 day course.

It starts on Monday 2nd September, so keep an eye open for your first email (with links to that day’s course goodies).

In the meantime, here are 2 things you can do:

 

These details will get you logged in for all the course modules and all of the forum discussions.

I’m really loooking forward to sharing this journey with you.

Thank you for joining in.

Namaste,

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