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Gratitude is a Super Power!

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I am grateful to be looking at gratitude yet again this blog!
Gratitude is an awesome superpower. I read recently that one of the most powerful statements you can make, feel or think is ‘thank you’. Thank you to others and yourself too.
 
It is so helpful to remember to be thankful to all those people in our lives who have been motherly, kind and caring toward us, including of course our own maternal mothers, to whom we owe so much, including our lives. Remembering to be thankful to friends, family and strangers too for the kindness they show us in all sorts of ways is powerful to promote our happiness and peace of mind. We'll talk more about gratitude for mothering kindness next blog, as it will be Mother's Day weekend. I'll be on board travelling from Canberra to Sydney!
 
It is also great to be thankful to others who give us the opportunity to be kind to them. This includes, friends, family, pets, strangers and of course our children or anyone we care for.

It's great to remember to tune into our wise selves to be kind and thankful to ourselves too. Seeing ourselves be a positive force in the world, being kind and grateful creates a happy perception. We can reinforce this goodness by being thankful to ourselves. We can be grateful to ourselves for doing our best to be a kind, positive force in the world. Remembering also to forgive ourselves and others for all those so called ‘mistakes’, more helpfully known as learning opportunities. 
 
The opportunities to extend kindness do not always come in the ways we expect and sometimes these kind acts are received without thanks. I find it helpful to thank myself, especially during those times like when I have spent a lot of time and effort doing something like making a family meal which is received with 'I don't like this!' Resting in my intention to have prepared a healthy meal and thanking myself helps to prevent resentment. A space I  have known very well. 

Sometimes extending kindness, especially as parents, can be in the form of a strong boundary like ‘please, don’t speak to me like that’, or ‘no, you can’t do that’. Such Kindness always has the intention to protect others from harm.

I can remember the need for such a strong kind boundary many years ago when I needed to enforce the ‘no sleeping with phone rule’ with my then thirteen-year-old. As I was saying goodnight to them, I discovered the phone under their bedclothes. I removed the phone and there was much subsequent protesting.  I needed to check in with my wise self to remember that my intention was to prevent harm and for them to get a good night’s sleep. I was then able to thank myself for being courageously kind, as the protests continued.  
 
More about gratitude and its awesome benefits next blog.
With love, appreciation and very best well wishes to us all 


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Remember to Be Grateful to You Too!

5/28/2023

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I​ know I have told this story before; I find it a very useful illustration and reminder to thank ourselves, I hope you do too. One morning, when my family were all still at home, I opened the dishwasher and to my surprise it had been emptied. It is not that such things don’t happen in our house, they sometimes do, but as I rise early I can tend to be a hog around doing such tasks. 
 
I felt thankful and wondered who the mystery unpacker was. I began to thank others and then I remembered it was me! I had done it the night before! I could have dismissed the whole thing and berated myself with ‘how silly I was for not remembering’. Instead, I took a breath and checked into my wise self to be reminded to give myself some thanks.  I know the power and importance of being grateful for the kindness others show me. But what about being grateful to myself for the kindness I show myself and others and the way I am a positive force in the world! As Alice Walker wisely says 'Thank you' is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.' (remember to say that 'thank you prayer' to yourself about all we are grateful for including ourselves too'.
 
So, I remembered to check in with my wise self and instead of being dismissive, I took a few moments to be thankful to past me and also for the me that was interested in showing kindness to others too. I also remembered a cautionary note here – to check in with my intention behind being thankful to myself for kindness. I am very thankful to Lama Marut for his helpful understanding around this. He reminds us to have the intention to be kind in order to be better FOR others, rather than to unhelpfully think of ourselves as better THAN others because we are being kind. This intention check helps to form a happy healthy self-perception and motivates humility and kindness instead of pride. 
 
Another helpful reminder is to be happy about all kind actions, both our own and others. When we notice kindness and remember to be thankful and happy about it, we strengthen the interest we have in being that positive kind force in the world. Remembering to rejoice about happy, kind people in the world, including yourself creates a joyful upward spiral! We can also ramp it up further and give away all the goodness we create in being kind to the health and well being of everyone!

Thank you Geraldine for sending this 'What you choose to focus on will grow', which is pictured above. It reminds us we are in charge of what we create by where we put our focus. So let's choose to focus on love, gratitude and the positive things that are going on and be grateful for them. Let's reinforce and create that reality. 
 
So remember to express lots of ‘thank you’s’ to all including you.
 
Thank you for your kindness everyone.

With love, appreciation and very best well wishes to us all 
Maree xx
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