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Small Habits, Simple Pleasures, Grateful People, and The Practice of Gratitude

Wednesday Pause

Author

JoyOver
October 04, 2023

It’s far too easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of our seemingly never-ending pressures of everyday life.

Focusing daily on our “pile of things,” creates an exhaustion that can easily lead us to feel like “gratitude” is yet another thing we have “to do.”

But according to science and lead researcher, Robert A. Emmons—author, psychologist, and Berkeley professor—the practice of gratitude actually carries the opposite effect.

A simple practice of five minutes per day:

  • Increases our energy levels

  • Makes us more generous and helpful

  • Reduces our feelings of loneliness

  • Deepens our capacity for patience and forgiveness

  • Improves our sleep and functioning capabilities

  • And expands our ability to be positive and happy

The cost-benefit analysis is off-the-charts beneficial! Which is why …

For the month of October, we’ve decided to spend time exploring the soul work of gratitude.

As Oprah so wisely tells us:

“If you focus on what you have, you’ll have more than enough. If you focus on what you don’t have, you’ll never have enough.”

So, as you dive into today’s intermission, use the following prompts as a compass, helping you find “north” pauses of gratitude for today and the rest of your week.

But beyond today, consider what the practice of gratitude could potentially look like for you and your life this entire month.

“It’s not the happy people who are grateful. It is grateful people who are happy.” —Francis Bacon

—With Joy

A Pause to Practice

Visio Divina is an ancient way of Christian prayer in which space is created to listen and pay attention to the Holy at work by entering into a sacred image. This form of praxis is an invitation into the S.A.C.R.E.D. art of seeing, and the art below is this month’s featured offering for your time of reflection.

  • Stillness: Find a comfortable place of quiet. Take a few deep breaths. Invite God’s presence.

  • Acknowledge: Gaze gently over the entire image, allowing yourself to notice as many details as you can - shapes, colors, lighting, foreground, background, and symbols.

  • Center: Notice what captures your attention, what your eyes are drawn to, or where your thoughts linger. Notice what inspires you, and perhaps what you might also be avoiding.

  • Reflect: Meditate on any part of the image that has captured you. How might God be speaking to you through this? What might the message and meaning be? Is there an invitation in this for you?

  • Express: Find words or a prayer of your heart to articulate the thoughts, emotions, memories, or desires that have awakened. Give voice to the insights you’ve gained.

  • Dwell: Savor this sacred time. Rest in simple silence. Linger in the holiness of this space and place of practice.

A Prompt to Ponder

Reading 20 pages a day produces 30 books a year. Saving $10 a day accumulates to $3650 a year. Running one mile a day accomplishes 365 miles per year. Decluttering one room per week organizes your home in a few short months. Practicing one act of gratitude per day culminates in a lifestyle of deep appreciation and happiness. Don’t underestimate the power of small habits.

—Small Habits

A Prayer to Pray

“Now unto Thee, O heavenly Father, be all praise and glory that day by day Thou dost richly fill my life with various blessings:

A home to share, kindred to love, and friends to cherish. A place to fill and a work to do. A green world to live in, blue skies above me, and pure air to breathe. Healthy exercise and simple pleasures. My race's long history to remember and its great men to follow. Good books to read and many arts and crafts to delight in. So much that is worth knowing and the skill and science to know it. Those high thoughts that sometimes fill my mind and come I know not whence. Many happy days, and that inward calm that Thou givest me in days of gloom. The peace, passing understanding, that comes from Thine indwelling in my soul. The faith that looks through death and the hope of a larger life beyond the grave.

I thank Thee, O Lord God, that though with liberal hand Thou hast at all times showered Thy blessings upon our human kind, yet in Jesus Christ Thou hast done greater things for us than Thou ever didst before:

Making home sweeter and friends dearer. Turning sorrow into gladness and pain into the soul's victory. Robbing death of its sting. Robbing sin of its power. Making peace more peaceful and joy more joyful and faith and hope more secure.”

Amen.

—Simple Pleasures

  • Source: A Diary of Private Prayers by John Baillie, Twenty-Fourth Evening, p. 103.

  • If you would like to share this issue of PAUSE with a friend—via text, social media, or email—hold down on the following link, and when the option window pops up, hit ‘share’ »» https://joyover.com/pause/october-4-2023

  • Click here for previous month’s art offerings