So I say ‘Thank you for the music…’

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. Meister Eckhart

In the immortal words of ABBA (!!), I found myself one day last week singing ‘thank you for the music, for giving it to meeeeee…..’, after a rather fun, slightly wine-fuelled evening with an old friend, where we found ourselves dancing round my tiny kitchen – to old school rave tunes on youtube (bless youtube!!), whilst her baby boy slept soundly in the next room.

Wrapped in a fluffy blanket of hangover and sleep deprivation, I sat singing those lines to an internal juke box – in gratitude for the previous evening’s antics and all the memories that had come tumbling back in an instant, the flush of rich emotion intoxicating all on its own! There we were, pitched back into early nineties dance euphoria, complete with visuals, we dimmed the lights in honour of the sweaty, dark and dingy dance-floor of our minds.

But where does one start and where does one stop, in expressing gratitude for such experiences?!

Well, I thanked for the music and I thanked for the company and I thanked for the food, and I thanked for the wine, and I thanked for the laptop that delivered our drug of choice; music, for the friends who introduced this music so many years ago, and I thanked for my ears, and the fact that I don’t have neighbours close enough to upset, and I thanked for my brain that remembered each tune, and I thanked for the choice I made to travel to England, and I thanked for my family who provided my grounding, and I thanked for the memories that flooded my heart, my head – making it spin and whir with excitement – and last but not least – I thanked for life and the ability to feeeeeel and experience all of this and MORE!!

Let it be said - The role of gratitude cannot be underestimated. It is module No. 1 of all my coaching lessons for one prime reason – it grow’s your good quicker than anything I know, simply by shifting your focus daily, to what IS working – and away from what ISN”T. This makes us feel better, brings peace and happiness, which opens the heart for love and so much more.

In Sonja Lyubomirsky’s book ‘The How of Happiness’, she lists eight ways that gratitude boosts happiness:

1. Grateful thinking promotes the savouring of positive life experiences.
2. Expressing gratitude bolsters self-worth and self-esteem.
3. Gratitude helps people cope with stress and trauma.
4. The expression of gratitude encourages moral behaviour.
5. Gratitude can help build social bonds, strengthening existing relationships and nurturing new ones.
6. Expressing gratitude tends to inhibit invidious comparisons with others.
7. The practice of gratitude is incompatible with negative emotions and may actually diminish or deter such feelings as anger, bitterness and greed.
8. Gratitude helps us to thwart hedonic adaptation. (The manner in which we adapt quickly to a certain level of happiness and lose sight of the good – when daily gratitude is expressed it can actually counteract the effects of hedonic adaptation.


Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melodie Beattie

How could you not want all of that?! Make mine a double please!

Sitting here now, I’m remembering the first time the idea of a ‘gratitude journal’ was mentioned to me, by a very dear friend who’s mother had passed away from cancer. Her mother had long held this tradition, and having recently been diagnosed with cancer myself, my friend recommended it as a healthy and positive strategy. I thought – ‘but I am positive!! I’m gonna get through this! I’m not worried!’

However as I learned over time, there is a distinct difference between feeling positive, and expressing gratitude; one is a feeling, the other is an act. Action creates outcomes! It comes from a commitment to the act or idea. When we follow through with a commitment to living in peace and happiness, and set time aside for this practice, it becomes an act of devotion. Devotion to a life less ordinary! Beware – this simple act is powerful, and WILL change your life as you know it – for the better. Use with care ;-)

In closing, here’s something from Buddha:

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.

Have a FABULOUS week everyone – and at the risk of sounding horrendously cheesy thank you for supporting my action of creating this group by reading my weekly blog, and committing to your own personal growth!

Enjoy thanking for all the good in your life, and make room in that BIG beating heart for so much more. You know you want it!!!

Jxx

PS – For Bristol residents, a reminder that WOW Factor commences tomorrow night -July 22nd - in the form of a ‘taster’ evening, followed by another ‘taster’ evening July 29th, for those who can’t make the 22nd, and the eight week course commences after that.