Delight for the Soul
  • Welcome
  • Book
    • Knowing Beautiful Retreats
  • About Amy
  • Programs
    • Corporate Programs
    • Custom Events
    • Retreats >
      • Retreat Themes
      • Frequently Asked Questions
      • Knowing Beautiful Retreats
      • Empty Nest Retreat: for Mothers of Seniors
      • Couples Retreat >
        • Couple's Retreat F.A.Q.
    • Schedule, Cost, Location
  • Speaking
  • Blog
  • What Participants Say
  • Contact

What's After Gratitude?

11/25/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
It really works.  Our Thanksgiving holiday is an annual built-in pause for gratitude.  Full tummies, time with loved ones, vacation days giving space for reflection, lovely autumn weather, Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving on TV reminding us of the Pilgrims’ quest for freedom, which we still benefit from today. Really, it’s perfect.

And we know we need it.  There is more and more research on the power of purposefully focusing on our blessings.  It shifts our biochemistry, health and emotional well being. We want to operate from this place.  It sounds good, so we make it a goal.  It feels good, so we periodically practice.

And on days like Thanksgiving, we stay in it. Can you feel this shift in yourself over this holiday? Expansion, energy, joy, patience, balance?

The space for reflection in my own life brought forward an interesting question.  Once we’ve landed in gratitude, what’s next?

My immediate answer was, “Action!”  I need to share my blessings . . .  partially out of desire, part obligation.  My husband and I have dug a little deeper into our pockets, responding to the year-end invitations to give.  I am volunteering at  Macy’s kitten window today with my daughters.  I reached out to make sure my circle of family felt my love.  It all felt good.  Appropriate.  Natural.

Yet the question hasn’t gone away. What’s after gratitude?

This morning I woke up with a different answer ~ Peace.

If practicing gratitude is a means, then I believe the endpoint is peace.   Peace that comes from lifting up out of our own place of scarcity, comparison, and suffering.  Gratitude gives us extra capacity for peace.  We are more able to be compassionate, to understand the truth of others, to share ourselves.

I always wished Thanksgiving wasn’t so close to the Christmas holiday season, but now I see the beautiful link and flow.  Giving thanks drops us into our own center of peace, preparing us not just to wish for Peace on Earth as we stamp our holiday cards, but also to bring peace to our corner of the Earth, through our energy, actions and our blessings.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Subscribe to Blog

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

    Picture

    Amy Tirion
    About Me
    Advocate for Stillness, Seeker of Inspiration, Playful Mom, Lover of Creativity, Still Learning, Believer in Women,  Founder of Delight for the Soul

    Check Out My New Book Knowing Beautiful:
    A New Bedtime Story for Women

    Picture
    Becoming
    This blog is an invitation to stop.  Breathe.  And tap into the part of you that craves more space, inspiration, and nurturing.  It captures the writings from my Delight for the Soul Newsletter.  They are personal moments of reflection, inspiration, and questioning that focus on Being rather than Doing.  It's a direction we are all invited to go in, as we live deeply and do less.  The more we focus on being, the more delighted we become . . . and the more becoming we are.


    Categories

    All
    Abundance
    Admiration
    Aging
    Balance
    Beauty
    Becoming
    Buoyancy
    Calling
    Chakra
    Change
    Childhood
    Children
    Compassion
    Consciousness
    Courage
    Dance
    David Whyte
    Desire
    Disappointment
    Discomfort
    Dreaming
    Emotion
    Energy
    Enthusiasm
    Fear
    Flash Mob
    Friendship
    Full Moon
    Gender
    Girlfriends
    Giving
    Goal Setting
    Goal Setting
    Grace
    Graduation
    Gratitude
    Growing
    Harmony
    Heart
    Heart Opening
    Hope
    Indulgence
    Inspiration
    Intuition
    Jealousy
    Joy
    Kelly Mcgonigal
    Loss
    Love
    Magic
    Mary Oliver
    Mindfulness
    One Billion Rising
    Oneness
    Overwhelm
    Pace
    Parenting
    Peace
    Perimenopause
    Play
    Receiving
    Resilience
    School
    Self Care
    Self Perception
    Shasta Nelson
    Slowing Down
    Soul
    Support
    Time
    Travel
    Trust
    Truth
    Visioning
    Voice
    Vulnerability
    Wisdom
    Work
    World

 © 2017  Amy Tirion