Are you feeling grateful lately? In this episode, I want to invite you to acknowledge the good things that you might be overlooking in the last months through gratitude.
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This episode and post are going live the week of Thanksgiving. Talking about gratitude felt like the obvious choice, and yet I noticed a bit of resistance.
How could I have a conversation about being grateful without ignoring the present moment?
That question became the thesis for the episode and blog post. 2020 has been tough for many of us both, personally and professionally.
Yelling at people to focus on the positive isn’t going to help anyone. Now is not the time to spiritually bypass. John Wellwood coined the term, and here’s how he defines spiritual bypassing:
[Spiritual bypassing is the] tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks.
The last thing that I want is for you to use gratitude as a way to ignore the difficult experiences in your own life.
Gratitude isn’t about glossing over things. It’s about getting the full picture.
Most of us have no problem identifying what isn’t as it “should be”. Gratitude helps you acknowledge the good that you might be overlooking. You want to see your life for what it is, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Comparison enters the gratitude conversation in two ways. Neither is useful.
Turn your focus inwards and explore:
Gratitude doesn’t need to be an obligation. Let it be a conversation.