Finding time to be grateful is one of the keys to living your fullest life. The attitude of gratitude opens hearts and minds as nothing else can.
Gratitude reframes challenges, making them manageable. It unpacks the gifts in each moment and transforms grey-looking landscapes into colorful tableaux! On the Website Think Simple Now, there’s a very helpful post by Tina Su offering “5 Tools for Appreciation.”
Step One: Pause for Gratitude
You’ll notice that the first step, as with so many tools for enhancing our lives, is to pause. Now, this may seem counter-intuitive at first. Finding time to pause in our busy lives can be a challenge that looks impossible on some days.
That pause, however, is one of the points where your time choices and your values intersect. Taking a moment to breathe and look around, you refresh your spirit and give yourself the space for choice-making. So, when you pause and reflect with gratitude, you put yourself back into the moment and open your heart to all that it contains.
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. Gratitude turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. And gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~Melody Beattie~
Try giving yourself some grateful pauses throughout the day today. Aim for five, and see how it goes. I suggest catching yourself when you are feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. Choose those moments to pause and reflect.
How does that work for you? I’d love to hear how it goes!
And here’s something more for you…
So, what if you could find another hour every week? You can! For more Time Finding resources, you are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE. And when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!
Let’s explore time together …
Hi Paula,
I’ve followed your advice for grateful pauses. My first was waking to this brilliant blue day. And I loved smelling the fresh earth as I raked the last crop of leaves off some still-verdant ground cover.
Also, I feel grateful to you and the Finding Time Community. I was happy to see your most recent article called “Time Management Tips – 3 New Steps to Enhance Your Time With Gratitude” – how perfect that EzineArticles.com published it today! I’m sure more grateful moments will follow today. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy remainder of the week!
I agree, Alison – the Gratitude article, along with the Thanksgiving post were very timely for me. It is so helpful to pause and take a breath. It just takes a few seconds – and it’s so transformative!
Gratitude–so simple, yet so often forgotten. Thank you for reminding us.
Thank you Kathryn, Jordy, and Alison – I feel grateful for your sharing … and wish for each of you a month filled with moments of simplicity and depth. I am looking forward to our continuing connection!
Gratitude is one of the things that will help you find happiness in life. When you look for things to be grateful for you can always find them.
You are so right, Adam – and I appreciate your taking the time to share your insight!