“Gratitude is the memory of the heart.” ~ French Proverb
I was taking a tele-course in June 2008, one of the exercises was to be paired up with someone from class for a weekly call to tell each other what we were grateful for.
I hoped to attract a partner that wanted to participate in the exercise and see where it would lead. The facilitator said she picked our partners by tuning into each student and seeing who would be a good fit.
It’s fun to see how a simple exercise can bloom into such a revealing and expansive path in your life. Lynne, my partner, and I had a short call to meet each other and chat a little and set up the schedule.
Once a week at a selected time we were to meet on the phone and spend 5-10 minutes telling the other person what we were grateful for in the week that had just past.
One of the specific ground rules was no chatting just one person expressing gratitude in the way they chose to do so and the other listening and holding the space for that gratitude.
When the last person finished we were to say good by and hang up until next week. If we wanted to just spend a little bit of time talking we needed to break the connection of the call and call back to chat.
I think this was a very powerful ground rule, it seemed to open the space for gratitude when we connected and really let each of us be completely in that space for the fifteen minutes or so we were on the phone and then close that space so that we could bring it with us into our new week.
The class was over a four week period and so the exercise was to have four calls and experience expressing and holding gratitude. Lynne and I enjoyed the exercise and had scheduled an additional call to chat in between so we decided to continue the weekly gratitude call.
I have done gratitude journaling and often will have a wonderful rampage of appreciation as I walk my dogs or sit outside in the evening watching the evening light flush into the sky and have found great benefit in it. The weekly gratitude call has opened it up to a new expansive layer.
Lynne and I have become good friends and we have a conversation call twice a month where we talk about what we are attracting into our lives and what manifestations we are creating as we open up to the new shifts being created as we release old ways of thinking and embrace a more expanded awareness in our lives.
Do you invite a few moments in your day to be in the space of gratitude? What does it feel like?
Some times people do gratitude work and they get stuck in the energy of gratitude that something is over, or that they escaped an unpleasant thing happening… In that way you are not really feeling into the expansive place of gratitude – you are more in a place of relief.
Do you have someone you could set up a weekly gratitude call with? I invite you to try it for four weeks, use the same ground rules I talked about and see what new awareness and opportunities you invite into your life by opening up to gratitude.
I have been doing my weekly gratitude phone calls with Lynne for nine months now, every Monday. It has been a great opening to gratitude and a new friendship for me.
If you have questions on gratitude write a comment I would love to hear your questions and discover the answers together. Do you have an experience with gratitude? Share it with me I appreciate hearing what gratitude has opened up for you.
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In a similar practice, we were asked to say to our partner, “Thank you the gift you are to me is_______________” . While it was very stilted initially it became a fun exercise which allowed me to think about all the gifts I was receiving from others.
Thanks for reminding me of that.
Hi BZ,
This is an excellent idea and one that I hope you will let me
I’ve had a gratitude journal for years but never thought of doing it with a partner over the phone.
borrow
I’ve just found your blog and already you are supplying me with valuable tools!! Thanks so much for your generosity and wisdom.
Hi Delicate Flower,
The practice you mentioned sounds like a great one. It would be a way for you to really tune into the other person and to yourself and what you are appreciating right in the moment.
By being in the moment we can be so much mores successful and happy as we move through our day.
BZ
Hi Gladys,
Absolutely, borrow it. Who will you start your weekly gratitude calls with?
You discover so much about how you move through your days by doing this and you become more appreciative of what you accomplish as you are working during the day.
Enjoy
BZ