YES to gratitude (putting it in writing)

One big way I'm saying YES to gratitude this month is by writing gratitude notes to 30 people in my life. I'm using Lori Portka's A Month of Thank Yous Gratitude Kit, and it is already changing me. Seriously. And that is honestly a bit unexpected.

When I decided to embark on this adventure of writing 30 notes of gratitude, I had the thought that I didn't know 30 people I could thank. I mean do I even have 30 people in my life? It feels so quiet over here because I spend so much time alone and with my little famly.

But then I started writing the notes.

Four notes in and I can't stop thinking about new people to write to. I feel deeply steeped in really seeing and thinking about the people who have guided me to this moment in my life. And this specific kind of gratitude is a feeling I needed to experience in my bones.

The reality is, we don't always practice what we know, what we teach. October is a challenging month each year around here, and my husband's stress level is always high. Yet, somehow I'm always surprised. (Kind of like how each year in early March, I am shocked by my own stress level about getting my taxes done. Happens each year. Still catches me off guard.)

Gratitude can seem very far away when the stress of the everyday stuff is high. The word alone can bug me, and invite me to feel guilty and even angry. These feelings becomes clues of course, but that doesn't mean I always want to investigate what they are telling me.

Last week, as I was thinking about this idea of inviting in more gratitude and deciding to do this practice of writing out my gratitude and sending it in the mail to others, I gave myself permission to set down some of my stories around the word "gratitude" and see what would happen if I explored it with my heart simply open. 

I'll be sharing more about the experience of writing these notes throughout the month, and I'd love for you to come along and share your experience with the practice too. Consider joining me and writing your own notes of gratitude (you could even just write 5 or 10). 

Be sure to check out Lori's kit here. There are 30 different postcards in the kit, so you are actually getting 30 small prints on gorgeous, thick, easy-to-write on cardstock. Lori's offering my readers a 15% discount this month with the code THANKFUL (just put the code in right above your order total on the shopping cart page).

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This November, I'm exploring the idea of saying YES to gratitude in all its gorgeous, sometimes confusing, heart-expanding ways. And I'm inviting you to come along on the adventure here on my blog.

Throughout the month, there will be a practice in letting others know I'm grateful for them, a few stories, a collaboration or two, inspiration from others, some giveaways, a special Etsy sale for my newsletter subscribers, and a few other good things. 

You can find all the YES to Gratitude posts right here. 

YES to gratitude

I'll begin by saying how grateful I am that 2200 of you came along and said "Yes to this moment" when we went on a deep dive into being present during Yes, This* earlier this month. The experience of teaching that 10-day course was transformative for me and I want to continue sharing ideas about ways we can say YES in the midst of our beautiful, messy lives. 

This November, I'm exploring the idea of saying YES to gratitude in all its gorgeous, sometimes confusing, heart-expanding ways. And I'm inviting you to come along on the adventure right here on my blog (no need to sign up for anything). There will be a practice in letting others know I'm grateful for them, a few stories, a collaboration or two, inspiration from others, some giveaways, and a few other good things. I won't be blogging about gratitude every day in November, but it will be a theme I visit a few times a week.

Thank you for being here and sharing your stories. I look forward to continuing to say YES together.

*I've received a few emails from people asking about the next time I'll be offering Yes, This or wanting ways to dive deeper into the concepts explored in that course. I will be sharing it again in the future, but until then, consider joining me for my December Water Your Soul course where we'll be exploring ways to stay centered in the midst of the holiday season. And you might want to sign up for my (almost) weekly newsletter all about creative self-care that shares stories of my in the trenches exploration of holding beauty in one hand and the messy in the other and saying YES to all of it.