start monday with gratitude
week 36
Welcome to Week 36, 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
Do you know how it feels to worry about something? Do you know how it feels to be at a lost, to be at the end of your tether, to not know what to do next or what step to take next?
At times like these it can often feel like we’re shrouded in a heavy blanket of darkness. At times like these, we lose our spark because it’s been dampened by the heavy, low vibrational energy of worry or fear that is surrounding us.
At times like these, what can help you, what do you do? Do you feel better muddling through on your own or turning to someone close, someone you trust and sharing the problem? How can your spark be rekindled faster and brighter?
We’ve all heard the phrase “a burden shared is a burden halved”. We all know the concept of lending a listening ear and offering a shoulder to cry on. However, have you considered just how helpful that shoulder, that listening ear, that offer of support is when you’re in trouble, when you’re feeling stuck?
When you turn to someone for support in difficult times, what happens between you and that other person?
Well, you talk through the problem, you come up with solutions and ideas together, you gain a new perspective on the situation. And you discover that either there’s a solution or if there is no solution, you realise that you don’t have to go through the challenge alone; you have support. Simply involving someone else to share your burden, to listen to you and support you, enables you to move away from the darkness of the problem, to cast off the heavy blanket that has diminished your light. Because turning to someone you know you can trust and who’ll support you, helps rekindle your spark.
Compare that with muddling through something on your own.
When you’re facing a problem, it’s hard to see it unbiasedly. It’s difficult to look at it without emotions and from different perspectives. And, as a result, it’s much more challenging to uncover possible solutions. And when you can’t see a way forward, you become more stuck and solving the problem takes so much longer with things, often, spiralling out of control. As a result, you remain in a low emotional vibration, and your spark doesn’t have a chance to get rekindled.
Each of us tends to have at least one person we can turn to share our burdens, to talk things through, to find solutions. Some people have more people they can turn to, depending on the nature of the problem. For example, they might have a friend who can step back and see things from a clear perspective, they might have a partner they can share emotional issues with, they might have a colleague who will support them through a work issue.
Without such people in our lives, our spark cannot be relit and cannot be rekindled.
daily gratitude practice
monday
I remember hearing a phrase once, “love hurts but loneliness kills”. Although you may get hurt by those in your lives, if you don’t have anyone in your life, if life purely consists of you and nobody else, then that can be more devastating.
Indeed, science shows that when a person is lonely their risk of experiencing a heart attack increases by more than 40%.
That makes you think, doesn’t it?
That makes you even more appreciative of the people you have in your life, doesn’t it?
Bearing this in mind, list up to 10 people in your life you can turn to anytime, day or night, for support when you are facing a challenge.
And express gratitude that they are part of your life.
tuesday
Most of us have more than one person in our life we can turn to when we need to rekindle our spark, for whatever reason.
However, today, I invite you to zero-in on the one person you know you can turn to every single time, the one person you know will always make time to lend their listening ear and their shoulder.
Focus on that one person and then focus on how you feel in your heart towards them.
Do you feel your heart swell and expand with love, appreciation and gratitude for them?
wednesday
Thinking, again, of that one person in your life from yesterday.
Do you, and have you, always taken their presence and support for granted or do always take it with gratitude?
Quite often when there is someone in our life we know will always support us, no matter what, who will be there to get us through the small challenges as well as the big ones, it’s only natural that, at times, perhaps when we’re going through something small, that we take their presence for granted.
Today I invite you to think back to times when you took them for granted, times when you may have forgotten to say thank you.
Write all those times down in your journal. Then sit with that list, no matter how short or long, and with that person and go through each item on the list with them, telling them how you may not have expressed your gratitude for them at the time but that you are grateful that they are in your life.
How does it feel to express gratitude to them?
And how do they react?
thursday
Think back to a time when someone, a stranger, supported you and you either never got a chance to express your gratitude to them or you simply forgot.
For example, perhaps you were caught up in something traumatic and a stranger helped you for a few minutes but you never got to say thank you for what they did because they disappeared as quickly as they appeared or perhaps a stranger helped you through a very minor issue, something so minor that the words “thank you” simply slipped your mind at the time.
I invite you to express gratitude to them today for how they supported you in that situation.
As they were a stranger you won’t be able to express your gratitude in person to them so simply send your gratitude to them out to the Universe.
friday
Think back to a time when a friend, family member or partner supported you through a very difficult and challenging situation. Someone, without whom, you would have struggled through that situation.
Remember how you felt having them in your life at that time.
Remember how much stronger you felt with them nearby.
Remember how they helped ease the situation and made it less challenging.
Remember everything you can about their impact on the situation, on you.
Feel into the emotions you feel towards them as a result of their action, their support, their presence at that time. And express gratitude for having this person in your life.
saturday
Recall the same scenario you remembered yesterday. Only this time imagine what could have happened, how you would have felt had that person in your life not been there and had not been able to support you through this challenge.
How would it have felt to have gone through this challenge on your own?
Do you think you would have ‘seen the lights at the end of the tunnel’ as quickly as you did, had you worked through it on your own?
Do you think you would have made it through this challenge as unscathed as you did had this person not supported you?
How much gratitude and appreciation do you feel towards this person?
sunday
On Monday you listed 10 people in your life who you know you can turn to when you need a listening ear or shoulder to support you.
Today I invite you to list 10 people in your life for whom you’ve been the support or regularly support during their challenges.
What 10 people can turn to you when they’re faced with a challenge?
And how do you feel being in that trusted position, as someone they know they can turn to?
Whilst it’s important to express gratitude for people we have in our lives that we can turn to in our hour of need, it’s also important to express gratitude for our ability to do the same for those in our life.
So, today, express your gratitude for being in a position where those people felt they could turn to you for support.
and let's not forget...
This week's high vibe tune remembers all those people in your life that you can count on
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.
“At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” ~ Albert Schweitzer
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.
