start monday with gratitude
week 9
Welcome to Week 9, lovely soul.
Below you'll find the video and video transcript introducing you to this week's quote and musings.
Scroll further and you'll discover this week's daily exercises, high vibe tune, and downloadable wallpapers.
video transcript
Let’s think about gratitude. When you’re feeling grateful for something or someone in your life, how do you feel? How would you describe your feelings?
Would you say your feelings are more closely related to a feeling of joy? Or would you say your feelings are more closely related to an emotion such as sorrow?
In other words, when you experience gratitude are the feelings you experience light and exciting? Do they make you feel happy? Or are your feelings heavy and dark? Do they make you feel down and low, sad and sorrowful?
Light, positive emotions such as joy and happiness are at the opposite end of the spectrum to emotions such as sorrow and sadness.
The positive vibration and emotion of gratitude is so far removed and so different from any negative emotion and vibration that the two simply can’t be in the same place at once. And it’s not possible for gratefulness to be rooted to completely different ends of an emotional spectrum, it can only be rooted to one end.
So which end is it? Which end of the emotional and vibrational scale is where gratefulness finds its roots?
Well, it all depends on the emotions you feel when you express gratitude. And the emotion you feel is one that is one of joy. Therefore, gratefulness is the root of joy, and the energy of joy is positive and high.
It's impossible to feel grateful when your energy is heavy and low, energy and emotions that are closely connected to vibrations such as sorrow and sadness.
That doesn't mean to say, however, that when you're feeling low you can't practise gratitude. If anything, that's one of the best times to get your gratitude vibe stoked up because there's simply no way your energy can remain low and heavy when you show gratitude for everything and everyone you have in your life.
Next time life throws a curveball or gets you down, sit for a few minutes and just think about everything and everyone in your life that you are grateful for, from the smallest thing you take for granted to the biggest miracle in your life. And just watch how your energy and mood change...
daily gratitude practice
monday
What makes you feel joyous?
When do you feel joy?
How do you feel when you experience joy?
I'm hoping when you think through those questions, you come up with experiences that make your heart sing, that make you want to jump up with excitement, that fill you with a beautiful feeling of elation.
And I'm hoping you come up words a bit like bliss, elation, delight, alive, glee when you think how you feel when you experience joy.
tuesday
Yesterday we focused on what makes you feel joyous. Today I invite you to think about how you feel when you experience the opposite of joy, when you experience feelings that would accompany sadness, sorrow, discouragement, unhappiness.
Think of things that make you feel sad, sorrow, unhappy.
How do they make you feel?
How does sorrow, discouragement, unhappiness feel?
They’re much heavier emotions, right?
They're not emotions you enjoy feeling. Rather, wherever possible, they're emotions you prefer to avoid, right?
wednesday
Today I invite you to sit with negativity, to really feel it.
So, think of something that makes you, or made you in the past, really sad. Something that left you feeling despondent, filled with sorrow and even grief.
Really feel into how that makes you feel.
Where do you feel it in your body?
Describe the feeling in as much detail as you can. Really lean into it and experience it.
Then start to consciously express gratitude for about 5 minutes or so.
Express gratitude for anything and everything in your life. For the small blessings. For the big miracles.
Spend every second of these 5 minutes expressing gratitude.
How do you feel after those 5 minutes?
How do you feel in your body?
Where do you feel it in your body?
Describe that feeling and sensation in as much detail as possible and compare it to how you felt when you sat with negativity.
How much lighter do you feel?
How much higher is your energetic vibration?
thursday
Let’s embrace negativity.
For everything that happens to you today, I invite you to find a negative meaning for it, read something negative into it, especially the nice things that you experience.
For example, if someone smiles at you today, I invite you to think something along the lines of “They’re only smiling because they want me to do something for them”.
When someone standing near you, it could be at a coffee machine or something, starts to chat to you, think the worst of that person. What are they after? What is their ulterior motive?
At the end of the day, grade your emotional energy on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being completely depleted and 10 being buzzing and full of life.
Where does your emotional energy sit on that scale?
friday
We’re going to do the opposite of what we did yesterday.
Today I invite you to think something positive about everything that happens to you, and I invite you to be grateful about everything you experience, especially the more challenging things.
So, today if someone smiles at you, I want you to think something along the lines of, “How lovely, how kind of them”.
If someone bites at something you said, think, “they’re having a bad day, I’m going to send the vibration of love their way”.
At the end of the day, grade your emotional energy on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being completely depleted and 10 being buzzing and full of life.
Where does your emotional energy sit on that scale?
Is it sitting higher on the scale than it was by the end of yesterday? (Hint: it should be).
saturday
We’re really going to stir the pot up today with our practice. Are you ready for a challenge?
Today I invite you to smile, say thank you, give thanks for everyone and everything you have in your life.
Can you do that?
Of course, you can – you’ve been practising for a few weeks already.
So why would that be challenging? Well, here’s the clincher… I want you to do all those things whilst feeling miserable inside.
So, when you smile at someone, don’t feel happy.
When you say thank you to someone, feel angry inside.
When you express gratitude for everyone and everything in your life, feel ungrateful.
Can you do that?
Really?
You might be able to feign it for the first couple of attempts but before long you simply won’t be able to feel angry, miserable, unhappy if you truly are expressing gratitude.
The positive emotion and vibration of gratitude is so far removed and so different from any negative emotion and vibration that the two can’t be in the same place at once.
sunday
Today’s a day for reflection, looking back, seeing how things could have been different.
We’re not going to look back at something negative that happened and think, “if only that hadn’t happened”. Rather we’re going to look back at something negative that happened and think, “what could I have done to bring more positivity into that situation?”
Take a few minutes to return to a recent experience which felt negative, that had a negative impact on you.
Choose something from your recent past so you can remember as many details as possible.
Re-experience it, remember everything that happened, when it happened, how it happened, how you felt, the final outcome.
If it was a negative experience you will find, if you look for it with honesty and an open heart, some places, some times during that experience where you could have better, sooner, faster introduced a sense of gratitude, where you could have turned the negative situation around into something positive.
If you had to go through that experience again, today, how and what would you change to turn it into something more positive?
and let's not forget...
This week's high vibe tune invites us to shake off all things negative
have gratitude wherever you go...
... with this week's gratitude quote wallpaper.
Note: details of how to download this week's wallpaper is provided below.
“The root of joy is gratefulness" ~ David Steindl-Rast
16:9
16:10
4:3
mobile
how to download your wallpaper
desktop
Before copying one of the pictures below, you'll want to quickly check your screen settings because the worst thing you can do is use a wallpaper with an aspect ratio that differs from the aspect ratio of your screen.
The aspect ratio of a rectangle is simply the proportion between width and height. The most common are 16:9, 16:10 and 4:3. And it will be for these 3 sizes that I shall provide you with your free wallpaper.
To find your screen resolution follow this basic guide. Steps for your computer may vary slightly but I hope this will give you some guidance:
- Right-click the desktop and select Display settings.
- Scroll down until you see "Resolution" (you may have to choose an "Advanced" option)
- To find your aspect ratio, divide the width over the height. For example, if my resolution is 1920 x 1080 then I would divide 1920 over 1080 to get 1.778, which indicates a 16:9 resolution. Similarly, 1.6 indicated 16:10 and 1.333 indicates 4:3
- When you've calculated your screen's aspect ratio, go to the picture below that matches that size
- Right click on the picture and select "Set as Desktop Background"
- Choose whether to "Fill", "Fit", or "Stretch" your picture - if you've chosen the right size "Fit" will be your best option
- Select "Set Desktop Background" and you're done
android mobile
- First, save the wallpaper image to your phone by pressing your finger on the wallpaper image and hold down on it until you see a menu.
- From here, click the “Save image” tab, and it will begin downloading.
- The next step is to set this saved image as your wallpaper by pressing and holding a blank area on your screen (meaning where no apps are placed), and home screen options will appear.
- Select 'add wallpaper' and choose whether the wallpaper is intended for 'Home screen', 'Lock screen', or 'Home and lock screen'.
- Another set of options will appear where you can choose where the photo you would like to use will be coming from, namely the Gallery.
- If necessary, crop the image to a suitable size. Once satisfied, simply click 'Done'.
ios smartphone
- First, save the wallpaper image to your phone by pressing your finger on the wallpaper image and hold down for about 2 seconds until a menu appears.
- From here, click “Save Image“, and it will begin downloading.
- The next step is to set this saved image as your wallpaper by, first, going to the 'Photos' app and selecting the wallpaper photo you've saved there.
- Click on the share icon on the lower left corner of the screen, then select 'Use as Wallpaper'.
- Then choose to set the photo as either the lock screen, home screen or both.
