FULL GRATITUDE It’s okay to have felt big things this past week. Thanksgiving is complex. Or not. How complex is it really? It depends upon who you ask. The history of the day seems straightforward. Perhaps it’s the emotional piece that feels so complex. Gratitude is big. And we often assign it an expectation that no emotion can meet. To exist in the singular. Detached from any other feeling. Yet this is not how emotion manifests. No feeling exists in a vacuum. To my daughter Thanksgiving lacks complexity. She has never been exposed to the very much inflated Pilgrim story of Thanksgiving and wonders exactly what there is to celebrate about a group of White European Puritans claiming to...
I want you to know, YOU ARE ALLOWED TO NOT FIND JOY IN FREE WORK. More on that… My essay a few weeks ago,The Cost of Free definitely struck a chord. I am still receiving emails from readers and also, DMs and comments on IG in response to the idea of true receivership. Much of the response feels like a release. A letting go of the need to churn away in agitation. Permission to stop being part of what has come to be an expected endless cycle of free. A reevaluation of what true receivership means for each of you. I’m glad those points hit home. Along with those thoughts shared, were also comments about the joy that...
All science points to practicing gratitude as having a positive effect on our well being. A wide range of studies have proven this to be true. So why am I so skeptical? Don't get me wrong, gratitude is a beautiful thing. And it feels wonderful. Acknowledging our abundance and moving ourselves away from a mindset of scarcity can feel like a breath of fresh air. It gives us pause, makes us feel like we are enough and puts the breaks on the capitalist addiction we have to always striving for more. All good things. Along with numerous mental health benefits, a gratitude practice can also have a positive effect on our physical health lowering blood pressure, improving...
