The power of Gratitude

The research on gratitude is growing. it gives us all reason to start a gratitude practice.  Here's a recent article  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2018/02/19/can-gratitude-help-you-recover-from-a-heart-attack/?utm_term=.0ce7a788b148&wpisrc=nl_optimist&wpmm=1

Children who practice gratitude regularly do better in school, have less ADHD, and a happier outlook.  Adults who practice gratitude do better in their jobs, have better relationships, and better heart health. 

FYI - I will be teaching two classes in March to help with heart warrior training -- March 5 and March 12.  

They go beyond gratitude to other ways to expand inner strength, but gratitude is a biggie.

One class uses the power of intention and the other teaches skills to become stronger and more resilient in the midst of a chaotic and often depressing world.  If anyone wants to sign up, there is a fee -- $49 each class. If you have already taken one of these classes, I can let you take it again for a nominal fee.  Like all my classes, they are fundraisers to  pay for this website. Just email me and I'll send a  paypal link:  

March 5: How to Get the Life and Love you Want and March 12: How to Stay Strong and Happy Even in a Chaotic World. 

https://www.jeannemayell.com/event/willing-your-way-2/ and  https://www.jeannemayell.com/event/how-to-stay-strong-and-happy-even-in-a-chaotic-world/

Please forgive me for using this space to promote a class. I hadn't intended it when I opened this thread, but it would be silly not to mention it when it does provide a chance for some to work on these skills. 

I love the story of your son, Jeanne.  I feel the beautiful architecture of a heart that grew a brave young man who loves others as he explores a fascinating world.  I was so moved by the youth from Parkland and the adults who stood behind, next to, and all around them, like sturdy beams.  In all of the photographs and videos, I saw the strength of adults so lovingly present so the voices of young hearts could speak truth.  I am grateful for the hope I feel about the power of young people and am grateful for opportunities to be part of the woodwork that supports their journey.  

Jeanne, we all don't really quite understand and appreciate how much work you put into this website. Please, advertise yourself shamelessly!!!

So I had a shitty weekend (and life has been generally difficult since some time). But everytime I'm low, I must say people always come through for me and help is always at hand even if I think I'm completely abandoned. It is really touching and I'm deeply humbled because I know many people are struggling too. Yet they are willing to reach out, help, say a prayer. It's so sweet it always makes me tear up.

Here we are have many discussions about the dire state the country is in and how certain people and their ignorance and bigotry can drive one crazy - I just want to say one thing about Americans: I haven't ever met so many hard working, kind and generous people ever before. Okay, one could say that I might just attract nice people or that I haven't been in many countries (I've lived in my fare share of societies, and okay, Kiwis are probably the bee's knees :-)) But Americans are extremely hard working but also extremely generous. Hard going, but so very generous! I love Americans for that ❤️ 

Thank you, Gracesinger and Tee. Your words fill my heart.

I love this post!  I've been super busy in real life and haven't had time to post recently, and I'm grateful to come back and see this.  The thing I'm most grateful for at this moment is my son.  He signed up for his first year of highschool last week, went on his first official date, and is a wonderfully centered young man.  We had some discussion about the shooting in Florida.  He talked about the planned walkouts, and I told him I would support him in joining them.  He said, "I know Mom, but I think I'll stay in class because my education is important."  I will support that too!

I try to list 10 things I'm grateful for every day, but not in a journal, and not all at once.  It's kind of like a daily treasure hunt to find nuggets of good stuff the universe planted for me to find in my day.  When I find them, I stop a minute, savor them, and say thanks for this.  Sometimes it's as simple as the sun warming my skin when I step outside.  Sometimes it's as big as the movement our children are engaged in to make our world better.  I'll try to list some of mine here daily.  We all should!

I am grateful for the chaos and darkness we have because it has forced me to see all the light that's rising up.  With gratitude I see the work of so many who are determined to make a better world.

Today we are having an election in my town.  Two men and two women are vying for two seats on an environmental board that determines how we use (and care for) our woodlands. The women are long time environmental advocates. The men have only business backgrounds in equity management. The men want to clear the woodlands for playing fields. I was a soccer coach for many years and can say with certainty that we do not need more playing fields.  We need more woodlands!  

Thank God for an energetic force of women in this town who have been distributing yard signs, arranging for poll sign carriers, setting up speaking events, sending out postcards, and getting out the vote.  

It's going to be a landslide for the environmentalists.  

The women  have campaigned with grace and power.

There is one man in another town race for School Committee  who uses a contentious approach.  He stands for one thing -- blasting the system and appealing to people's discontent.   His positions are liberal, but his method is to blast and hurt. He reminds me of Trump.  People here are not buying it.   They don't want that kind of ugliness to get a foothold here. 

The light workers work tirelessly to improve our town's sustainability, project by project, year by year. They do it by offering a positive approach.  I am grateful for this. 

I am grateful for the opportunity to post my gratitude.  It somehow makes it feel real.

 I am grateful for reporters like Ari Melber who interviewed Sam Nunberg last night on his show.  He is a warrior.  And also for reporters like Rachel Maddow whose eloquent and humor filled reporting brings us truth.  I am grateful for my sweet neighbor who always has  cup of coffee and a smile for me.  Her toddlers light up my day.  I am also grateful for my son.  He showed me his sense of humor and delightful smile this weekend. He has been hiding it for some time.  

?

Remember my town election that I described up above?  Well yesterday was election day.  The women environmentalists running for the environmental board won in a major landslide.  And that guy with the contentious Trump approach I told you about who was also running?  He was soundly defeated.

I am grateful that this week is over  ? .  And I am grateful for a wonderful little tableau I was graced with on my way to work this morning.  I'm very fortunate to live close to my place of employment, and I can take back roads that wind through some semi rural areas with cow pastures.  Today, there was a calf sprawled out sleeping in the middle of the hay that had been put out for the heard.  There were a few cows standing in a rough semicircle around the calf munching away.  It was very peaceful and protective, and a lovely moment in a hectic day.  This is how we are guarded by Spirit.  Not adamantly, but in the most nonchalant and constant manner.  When we are sprawled out sleeping, our angels gather, break bread , and keep us safe.  And I thank them for that!

I'm also grateful to see the environmentalists won in your local elections Jeanne!  The more local change we can bring the better.

I am grateful for all of you. Everything is fleeting and always changing, and I know that this community too will change and move on someday.  Right now we are together, moving along a wave towards a new shore.

   I pray that you are all growing, evolving, blossoming in some way. I pray that you are all safe, held in love and feeling love, and finding  increasingly more moments of joy and of  peace, even as the world continues to whirl about.  What has been best for me about this community is just hearing your voices.

 I am also grateful for Zoron.  If you think of it, please send him healing energy. He is such a sweetheart.

No matter what happens, what we have right now is good. :)

I'm grateful for this community that makes me feel less alone during these crazy times. I'm grateful to Jeanne, who puts her heart and soul into this effort. It may be a labor of love, but it can't be easy. Jeanne, you're in my thoughts all the time and I surround you with loving energy. Please take care of yourself. 

Oh dear sweet Lynn, thank you.  It's so healing to read your words. 

This week out of the blue, I got a call that the town decided to give me double-sized garden plot.  They don't do this for people.  And I didn't ask for it, but it is such a blessing!  I had just read a wonderful article about an herbalist and wise woman extraordinaire named Susun Weed in Woodstock, N.Y.  I already grow vegetables and herbs, but needed more space.  Then I got this call!  Gardening is so soothing and primal.  And late on a summer's eve with the moon high and owl's hooting, it is a miracle. 

I've become a better cook because the food is so precious when you grow it yourself. And so just as I read about Susun Weed, gardener and wise woman extraordinaire, I get this crazy call offering me a double garden in the sun.

In my Monday class this week, someone (was it Ginny?) said that practicing gratitude has made her feel more spiritual, more connected to a divine presence.  It's so true!  When you feel gratitude, you feel graced, and so you feel as if your life is magical.  

Did I say this before?  Grace is found in the chalice of gratitude. 

Here's some gratitude for the sun. 

Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–

best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness

I don't know where to work with this ... there used to be a link here to changes we seeing happening in ourselves at this time, but it fits here.  Zoron and Jeanne led me to think about aliens in a new light; previously I immediately rejected the concept.  Then, Retired Techie led me to Alba Weinman's videos, which I've been watching for hours and hours.  Many years ago I read books that Paul brought up about past lives people recounted in hypnotherapy and they transformed my thinking about life.  So, I was drawn to the videos.  As a result, many of the images that first awakened new understandings in me decades ago and in dreams I've had along the way find their representation in new ways now.  The symbols I've been seeing in dreams across the last year took a three-dimensional form of light music I was playing and today the Kundalini that "an herbalist and wise woman extraordinaire named Susun Weed" explained to me in one of her books found new representation in the image of a strand of DNA.  Given radically new thoughts, I feel in a state of cognitive dissonance.  But the video tapes make sense of my present path; I've been feeling so powerless and passive; listening to the tapes I am seeing that I have been actively learning about how problematic my ego and emotions have been and staring at my addiction to nicotine.  I've been working really hard to turn around situations that hooked my ego and emotions in the past through prayer and different behaviors and I find myself flowing from places that don't flow from ego or emotions but from enthusiasm for their healing potential for the benefit of others.  The flow has been transformative and it's working ... slowly, quietly, surprisingly for the better.  I am so grateful.  

I don't know what to make of the talk of dark forces, ascension, aliens, and the new earth in the tapes, but they do seem to offer a different way of describing the predictions throughout this site.  I am definitely uncomfortable with the thought of symbiotic entities sucking away at my energetic body, but I'm also realizing how smoking is stealing the quality of my breath and resonance, too.  The lessons from both the tapes and this site seem to be the same: this is a time to ground and center as heavy fear storms whirl through.  

Gracesinger, thank you so much for sharing this. I happened upon a qhht video the other day where the participant shared that Earth is remembering who she is...and the scene from Moana of Te'Fiti reconnecting with her heart was flashing in neon lights inside my head. Suddenly I saw the whole movie as a parable for the human experiment/Earth journey and it was a huge light bulb moment that overwhelmed me with tears (this is my cue that I've connected with my higher knowing). Maybe there is a higher purpose to my kiddos' obsession with that movie. Or maybe not. Either way, it's a fantastic movie that I recommend, for any number of reasons. Another interesting thing from that same session was the mention of an event that catalyzes the shift to this 'new earth' which seems to coincide with the time line of many of the visions posted on this site. Now, my skepticism shield was way up at that point, but as you mention, Gracesinger, it struck me as a really interesting lens for interpreting the sequence of things described here. When I read your post I was floored by the synchronicity our insights. Jeanne, and all those who contribute their visions, thank you so much for the work you do. I find the information here scary at times, but ultimately empowering as we see that the future is not fixed, and that it does respond to our fears and desires. Jeanne, I'm grateful to you for being a beacon to those of us stumbling our way toward a brighter future. May we create for ourselves a world that is kind, just, compassionate, and respectful of all creation. 

Yes2maybe, thank you for your beautiful contextualization of what I was trying to communicate.  I want to watch Moana of Te'Fiti now and crawl into the roots of a tree, as was suggested on one of the tapes.  I've also been feeling a strong need to burn sage, bathe in salts, and to investigate my rock collection to find my shungite and get some black tourmaline and rock salt.  Roots and rocks and spring earth ... grounding.  I share your gratitude and hope:  "Jeanne, I'm grateful to you for being a beacon to those of us stumbling our way toward a brighter future. May we create for ourselves a world that is kind, just, compassionate, and respectful of all creation." Best!

If you're somebody who does heavy duty gardening, like I do, I found this stuff at my local organic with herbal everything store, and it's heaven for an excellent price: Sweetbody's organic arnica bath soak grounding blend with peppermint, ginger, calendula, apricot, Rosemary, and begamot.  It's magic.  I also got some grape seed oil and have been mixing it with sage oil and rubbing it on my stomach at night; just feels like being tucked into angel's arms.  You know what's strange this year?  All of the squirrels and birds around my house are nesting inside holes in trees; healthy assortment of trees ...  The ivy and birds even pulled back a corner of the siding on my house to nest inside; I'm not fixing it until the babies fly out.  It's just odd that they're not building external nests at all.  I live in the land of tornadoes and the New Madrid fault; hope to avoid those; bad drought here.