From My Renewed Mind.com
Most of us know that one of the best ways to live a SMART, happy and fulfilled life is to practice gratitude on a regular basis. As Mathew Henry said, “Thanksgiving is good, but Thanks Living is better.” Unfortunately, if you’re anything like me it’s far too easy to get stuck in our routines or troubles and let the doing of it slip our mind on a daily basis. That’s why for the second year in a row I am challenging myself to highlight aspects of “Thanksgiving” here on my blog in a way that keeps much of my focus and attention on both the feeling and expression of gratitude every day throughout the month. And hopefully, just like last year, you will be inspired enough to join me and “share the gratitude” in any way that you can.
As some of you know, the 2012 Gratitude Challenge was for me to post an article or quote every single day here on the website as well as on my SMART Living Facebook page, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google +. The challenge was definitely a challenge because posting every day isn’t easy, but it definitely ramped up my gratitude level AND it connected me to dozens of new friends. In case you missed them, here are the three posts from last year that both describes the challenge along with the lessons I learned along the way.
The SMART Living 30-Day Gratitude Challenge
Lessons From Gratitude–Day 22 of the SMART Living 30-Day Gratitude Challenge
The SMART Living 30-Day Gratitude Challenge 2012–30 Days of Quotes and Gratitude
So what is the 2013 challenge? One thing I have so learned to appreciate during the last year is the number of new friends I’ve made in the blogging world. Dozens of these other bloggers are self-lessly pouring their hearts, souls, imagination and experiences into blogs that are helpful, inspiring, motivating and sometimes just plain funny. Because of the tremendous encouragement I’ve found here on the Internet, I want to feature many of these great writers and their blogs specifically in the area of gratitude and thanksgiving.
So for the next thirty days my challenge is to scour the internet to find the very best “gratitude” and thanksgiving posts I can find—giving preference to my blogging friends whenever possible. Then each week I will share some of the highlights of the posts I’ve come across along with seven to 10 different links for all of you. My challenge to you is to read at least one of these great links once a day for the next 30 days.
Again, I am hoping you will join me and check out each of these posts. Also, it would be great if each of you keep your eye out and let me know of any blog posts that you’ve read from your favorite bloggers (or if you blog yourself) and put the link in the comments below. Remember, the focus is gratitude and thanksgiving. Ideally, it would be awesome if I had so many great posts that it would be difficult to choose which ones to highlight. So please help me out here.
I know that my life is more happy, content and meaningful when I take the time to be thankful and count my blessings. That is why it is my sincere goal to offer one “thankful” blog post for every day of this month, so that we can all read, think about, and grow our Gratitude in a real and SMART way. I’m fairly sure that by making Thanksgiving a habit, it will be firmly planted in our minds for the next 365 days.
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Gratitude Posts I’m offering for the week of November 1-7, 2013
by Christine at footsteps.bz
by Ginny at My Simplicity Quest.com
10 Things I’m Thankful NOT To Have This Year
by Bethany at Journey To Ithaca.com
by Dave at Retirement-Only the Beginning
by Nancy at My year of Sweat.com
Reflecting on What Makes Me Feel Grateful
by Wendy at Searching For The Happiness.com
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Remember, these along with mine from last year above should provide plenty of gratitude ideas for the week ahead. Next week I’ll have even more and I welcome (and greatly appreciate!) your suggestions in the comments below.
Click HERE to access post #2 for the Second Annual 30-Day Gratitude Challenge.
This post is shared at Healthy, Happy, Green & Natural Party Hop. See Here
This is beautiful, Kathy! What a wonderful initiative! Thanks for sharing such wonderful resources!
Stay blessed!
Hi Vidya! Thanks for coming by SMART Living and leaving a comment–AND for leaving your link about gratitude. Your article is lovely too so I will be linking it next week with my gratitude post! I’m being so filled up by searching for and finding such great expressions of gratitude and thanksgiving! I sure hope everyone is taking the time to read them and feel the many amazing emotions and ideas that flow from such a practice. ~Kathy
I love this. Gratitude makes life worth living and can change a negative experience in the blink of an eye.
Hi Tiffany! Thanks for stopping by SMART Living and leaving a comment. I hope you join us and if you have a post that fits I’d love for you to send me a link. I happen to believe it’s impossible to have too much gratitude! ~Kathy
Thank you Kathy! It’s so exciting to connect with such great people. I’m very new to the blogging world ( only a couple months!) and I’ve already found such inspiration, support, and kindness. The things I could write about gratitude are endless. If I come up with something worthy, I’ll definitely send a link your way. Thanks again!! 🙂
Oh good Tiffany! I will be posting three more times for the gratitude challenge so if you write something I’d really like to see it! ~Kathy
Finally wrote a gratitude post! 🙂 http://chemicalfreetiffany.com/3-things-i-am-thankful-for
Hi Tiffany! Thanks for stopping by and jumping into the challenge! 🙂 This next Friday, the 29th I will be hosting a Gratitude Blog Hop….be sure and come back by and post your Gratitude Blog post so that more people can be inspired. And thank you for sharing the gratitude with us all! ~Kathy
Hi Kathy,
Thank you so much for sharing this Smart Living 30 Day Challenge on my blog hop! I am so excited that you are there! I hope you get lots of visits and make new friends!
Hi Deborah!
No, no thank YOU for hosting the blog hop! I so love them because they introduce me to great posts AND other great bloggers out there doing the good work in the blogosphere. I’m looking forward to connecting with some new people to follow. ~Kathy
Thank you for sharing this Gratitude Challenge with me. I just finished reading a very special post on having a “Thankful Heart” from one of your Challenge participants. I really enjoyed reading her reflections on Thanksgiving dinners past. I remember my family dinners from childhood with fondness. My mother’s signature dish was her macaroni and cheese. She taught me how to make it before she passed (when I was a still a teenager) but my casserole never tastes as good as hers. I still try though. I am grateful and thankful for those memories, however distant they are. They still seem so close, clear and fresh in my mind’s eye. I am glad that I you invited me to enjoy the Gratitude Challenge. And thank you for the invitation. I hope I am up to the challenge.
Hi Deborah! Thank you for stopping by SMART Living and adding to the conversation AND for joining my challenge! And I’m also very happy that at least one of the link/posts triggered a happy, thankful memory in you. I’m doing my best to find posts in the blogosphere that offer lots of different perspectives and tips so that one or two of them should appeal to just about everyone. Plus, I’m hoping that you’ve got one in your archives that I can add in the next couple of weeks. Please link it either here as a comment or send me an email.
I’m opperrating under the idea that it’s IMPOSSIBLE to have too much gratitude so please send me any other links you personally come across in the days ahead and I’ll take a look at them.
Thanks so much for your comment–and I want to say again how much I enjoyed your post about the Negative Thought Fast. ~Kathy
Thank you so much for the mention. You made my day. You have quite a conquest ahead of you. Talk about determination. I am in awe of the amount of work you will be putting in just to showcase your fellow bloggers. Unbelievably impressed!!
Hi Wendy….you’re so welcome….like I said on your post, you’ve been incredibly supportive to me and so many others here in the blogosphere I thought it was just one small way I could return the favor. And considering how many blogs you must follow I doubt my project will come close. Still, if I’m going to hunt down blog posts at all, searching for the gratitude is a good one. Thanks again for all you do! ~Kathy
What a wonderful idea Kathy and thank you so much for reaching out earlier at the Joy of Simple! It will be my pleasure to do whatever I can for this wonderful idea 🙂
Take care and all the best.
Lyle
ps: I just love the phrase “Thanks Living”!!!
Hi Lyle…thanks for stopping by SMART Living and adding your encouragement to this challenge. Can you recommend one of your posts that might work for my linking? If not, please let me know if you write one between now and then…and BE SURE and let me know if you come across any others from your friends that might work as well. There are so many people doing great things on their blog that I thought this was one way to share the blog love AND increase and grow the gratitude. ~Kathy
Hi Kathy and thank you. I just sent you an email 🙂
Take care and all the best.
Lyle
Kathy, what a challenge you have set for yourself, but I like the idea of a daily gratitude thought or two. I noticed as things wind down now that we are indoors most of the time I have had time to reflect on all the wonderful things I have in my life. They aren’t the things you can buy but instead the hug from a little one, satisfying work and so on.
Great links for this week I had only read Bethany’s so I had lots of reading to do.
Hi Lois…as with most challenges the benefits can outweigh the work. I gained so much last year that I was motivated to come up with a new plan this year. And as you say, it is often the little things that end up adding such richness to our lives.
I’m glad you like the links I offer but I look forward to adding one of yours to one of my coming lists…. AND, because you visit so many blogs each and every week I hope you’ll let me know of any blogs in your network that offers some a good post about gratitude that I can link as well.
Thank you for your comments and for being one of my online friends! ~Kathy
Kathy, this is such a great way to honour the spirit of ThanksLiving! (ps I love that term!). I look forward to reading the posts you share, and I’ll also be on the lookout for you, in case I come across something awesome that you may have missed. You are a rock star for doing this! And I’m so sorry I didn’t make it to PS this trip. We’re *trying* to live inside a more sensible budget until we figure out this whole job situation. I know one day soon I’ll get to meet you though. That’s for sure! (And I can’t wait!)
Hi Nancy….glad you like the post and think it will help you get into the spirit of Thanks Living…I sure can’t ask for more than that…I welcome as many gratitude post suggestions as you can find. Check all YOUR favorite bloggers and we can really get some gratitude going. I’m actually thinking of doing a blog hop about it closer to Thanksgiving. I’ve never done one before but I love the idea of sharing all the gratitude I can find.
And hey, didn’t you just get to Vegas? Surely you don’t want to head home just yet…the weather is just getting good down here. But I totally get the idea of being frugal. And certainly yes, we will have to plan a meet up next time you’re close by….just don’t make it on top of one of those mountains you are climbing these days!!!
Have a good trip back and we’ll see you next time. ~Kathy
3 weeks…sigh… and it flew by! I’m sure we’ll be back for a few days in December, and then hopefully for a longer stay in January. I’ll keep you posted!
Sounds good Nancy….enjoy your time in Toronto and maybe we’ll run into one another during the coming “season!” Of course you are getting so lean and buff these days that something as tame as a glass of wine or margarita might seem pretty boring. But you do have to rest eventually so maybe we can plan it then? ~Kathy
Hi Kathy. I am posting a great one for this challenge. When I left Vietnam after being there for 10 days, I had a huge long list of things I was grateful for. They were the most mundane things too but I honestly felt so grateful for all the little things that make up my life after I visited there.
Don’t feel pressured to post it…just wanted to make sure that, in the context of your challenge, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
Looking forward to following some of these ideas as you go. Just seeing your posts each day will make me remember how lucky I am!
Hi Kelly! I would love a link to the post you’re talking about but there’s nothing attached? Please post again and I will definitely take a look at it. You were DEFINITELY on my list to include a post so give me AT LEAST one that you like! ~Kathy