Welcome to Vol. 8 of our Perennial Habits course. Here’s a quick review: our first meditation discussed How to Change When Change is Hard and the need for clarity, motivation, and shaping the path for change. Next, we talked about How to “Think” About Change, which discussed the stages of change and the notion of cognitive flexibility. Then, we explored The Paradox of Small Changes, which focused on thinking big and small. Followed by Becoming Every Day: A User’s Guide, Discerning the Way, A Simple, But Not Easy Stoic Exercise, and How to See — Like a Sage.
How to Take Nothing for Granted
The practice of gratitude appears across wisdom traditions. Although philosophical and spiritual traditions often speak of gratitude in slightly different ways than we do in modern culture.
You think this is just another day in your life. It’s not just another day; it’s the one day. It’s the one day that is given to you today. It’s a gift. It’s the only gift you have right now — and the only appropriate response is gratefulness.
— Brother David Steindl-Rast.
My interview with Kristi Nelson (author of Wakeup Grateful) uncovered the difference between gratitude and being grateful. Nelson explained gratefulness is gratitude for life. It reminds us that we are continually receiving in simply being alive. While gratitude — as we know it — needs something good to happen, gratefulness only requires us to be awake. Nelson writes that we do not need to do anything to feel grateful or wait for anything more.
How might your life change if you took nothing for granted?
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