The Embrace of Gratitude … for Daughters Who Have Lost Their Mom
Why Gratitude?
I am a Daughter who lost my own Mom when I was 14 and have struggled in more ways than I can count every day since. In the 32 years since she passed, I allowed the loss to define me, my life, my relationships and my identity. I had become a mere shell of the person I could have been and nothing like the person my Mom would have wanted me to be.
Enter Gratitude.
Last year, I met someone who talked with me about a gratitude practice they included as part of their morning routine. At first, I thought it sounded a bit crazy, actually, a lot crazy.
They explained how gratitude had changed their life in so many ways … so I decided to give it a try. After all the years I spent numbing out so I wouldn’t actually have to feel the pain I, quite frankly, did not have much to lose.
I started my practice by saying three things I was grateful for and yes, I said it to the bathroom mirror while I was getting ready for work. Can I just say how weird the whole thing felt that first day? Crazy weird.
The funny thing is though, after a few days, I started to notice a change. I no longer woke up with the huge weight of dread hanging over me because I had to go into the office, I stopped complaining as much, my mind starting to feel less clouded and more open, I began to feel more connected to people and started reaching out and … I physically felt lighter.
So … I kept going. Some days I had way more than three things to be grateful for and some days I struggled to find just one … but I kept going.
Today I can say that gratitude has, quite literally, pulled me out of the depths of a 32-year never-ending cycle of deep emotional pain and a repeating of the same self-destructive patterns.
Gratitude has helped me see, even when it was just for a minute, that life can be different, and I have the power to make it so.
Gratitude has helped me refocus the pain I have carried with me all these years into a new, happier way of living.
Gratitude has changed my perspective and my thoughts (a tricking-your-brain-of-sorts) and thus created deeper, more meaningful relationships with the people I care about.
Truth is, it's almost impossible to be grateful AND swirling in pain at the same time.
Gratitude has given me the freedom to move away from the loss of my Mom to a place of being able to embrace the life she lived, the gifts she left behind and it has helped me see how Mom lives on in me.
Hence, The Embrace of Gratitude … for Daughters Who Have Lost Their Mom was born.
The Embrace of Gratitude is a practice which gives each of us a place to speak and write about the things in life we are grateful for.
Gratitude can be as simple as being grateful for the feeling of the sun kissing your cheek or as deep as being grateful for a person who has made a profound difference in your life.
The gratitude practice itself is simple ...
- Use the free downloadlink to download The Embrace of Gratitude 30-day practice journal.
- Each page has a different theme (or prompt).
- Use the prompt to guide you as you move into a place of gratitude in your thoughts.
- The next step is to write it down … literally. There is something about the act of writing it down that forces us to own our thoughts ... which is just so powerful.
Embracing and practicing gratitude each day (from the very small to the most profound) can change your life … just as it has changed mine.
The Embrace of Gratitude free digital download is exclusively available only on Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 14th), so please use the link to get your copy today!
Please join me, let’s lock arms and continue this journey in gratitude together …
So much love,
Jenn