Cherishing Connection: A Practice Series
A guided seven-day practice series to tend and deepen our relationships.
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Discover this Principle
Explore the principle Appreciation Is Generative through this curated collection of resources and practices.
Appreciation Is Generative
Appreciation brings about a shift from passively to actively engaging with life. We recognize that we have choices when it comes to orienting our attention. We see that we can notice and respond to the opportunities we have in each moment — not only our circumstances — and it shapes everything. Awareness makes it possible to become active practitioners in shaping our experience. Focusing on noticing and nurturing what we appreciate is a matter of agency. Doing this in all the ways that we can, whenever we can, is an important aspect of Grateful Living.
If you actively tend anything, it is likely to flourish. Tend a houseplant, a pet, a room in your home, or one of your core values, and you will see a response. Tend the streets around where you live by picking up litter. Tend your community by getting involved. Tend the well-being of a local business by choosing to be a regular customer. Tending a person is a most powerful appreciation practice. In Dr. Edward Tronick’s well-known Still Face Experiment, simply offering or depriving infants of a smile had a profound impact on their emotional well-being and resilience. We are all built to be responsive to affection and attention.
When we release expectation and invite appreciation, all the moments of our lives become openings and opportunities.
Kristi Nelson
This principle asks that what we say we value is actually reflected in our choices and actions. It is easy to espouse values and to speak of appreciation, but it is a whole other practice to invest ourselves in the things that matter to us. Walking the talk. Practicing what we preach. These are barometers for integrity. What we appreciate most in life should be obvious to an onlooker. Grateful Living challenges us to align our actions with our values.
There are so many opportunities in a day to tend the things that we value, and to bring them more alive in our attention. The nourishment that we can give to the things and people we care about is virtually endless when we actively appreciate them. Investment matters. Care wants to be shown. And in the process of tending what we love, we are enlivened. In appreciating others, we feel more interconnection and belonging. Tending the Earth reminds us that we are in this together and that everything we do matters and makes a difference. Celebrating what we already have is an act of cherishing and helps us feel content and replete. Given our inherent belonging, the more we share our appreciation for the gifts of life, the more everything around us thrives, and so do we.
Excerpted from Wake Up Grateful: The Transformative Power of Taking Nothing for Granted
Wake Up Grateful
The Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted
What does it mean to truly live gratefully, every day? Wake Up Grateful unlocks the path to recognizing abundance in every moment, and gives readers the tools to bring this transformational shift in perspective into their daily lives.
Digging Deeper
For continued exploration of tending what you value, dive into these additional resources.
Stories of Grateful Living
Connecting Gratitude and Creativity
In this story of Grateful Living, Margaret Alvarez shares how her habit of writing gratitude…
Stories of Grateful Living
Cherishing a Patchwork of Potential
My origin story begins in an under-resourced environment riddled with social challenges such as poverty,…
Community Reflections
Community Reflections: Cultivating Gratefulness
Gratefulness is a setting of the heart, one that I can choose like a wavelength…
Practices
Earth Altars: A Practice for Grateful Living
It was a meditative experience placing the first acorn, and the next, and letting the…
The Way of Grateful Living
Grateful Living is supported by guiding pathways, daily practices, habits of mind,
and behaviors that make us more appreciative and available to life.
These Five Guiding Principles are touchstones to support your practice:
