You may have noticed that the name of this Gratitude blog has changed.  I’m very excited to announce that the new name of this little gratitude experiment site is officially…

www.Gratitudexp.com  It will hopefully make it easier to remember, and make it easier for you to tell others about it.  The way I think of it is..

Gratitude xp: exceptionally proactive, exceptionally powerful!   So, help spread the word. The more of us doing this, the more the vibration of the planet rises and the more positively energetic humanity will become!

My gratitude for yesterday was about how grateful I was that everything flowed so smoothly and gracefully all day.  It’s so great when that happens. And, I must say, I now (thanks to the practice of proactive gratitude) get more of those days than not.

However…there are those times when nothing seems to be going well at all. When there is a huge challenge you have to face. I had one of those today. And I kept thinking…I’m supposed to find the blessing in this?!  What could I possibly be grateful for this suckish morning?

Well, I kept at it and…I found it.  It was a “teaching moment” as they say in conscious parenting.  A horrible challenge with your child can become the very best opportunity to have them learn the lesson that just might change the course of their lives.

That’s what I came to be grateful about…the opportunity to learn something so valuable it could transform my life. And you know what? When I started looking at it like that, I stopped struggling against it. I relaxed into it and all the anger and anxiety just drained right out of me.  It was at this point that I could see, and be grateful for, the opportunity to grow to a higher level.

For all things, we can be grateful because we are so loved and all things work together for our good!

Notice what happens when you focus on something that you are grateful for in the moment… it pulls you into the present moment. You are in the present moment…in the presence of love…of something really magnificent that loves you and wants you to feel loved and supported. And it’s there all the time, just waiting for you to recognize it and accept it.

Today I’m grateful for everything flowing so smoothly and joyously…from one moment to the next.

And, I’m grateful for a warm comfortable bed which I am looking forward to jumping into right now!

I am grateful for the opportunity to goof around and laugh with my children on Sunday morning. I am grateful for their laugh and for encouraging mine.

I am grateful for synchronicity…those moment I could never plan on my own, but the Universe orchestrates so perfectly…”chance” meetings…someone telling me about something I’ve been wanted to know about…the information I needed just falling into my lap…joyful experiences I could never plan on my own. I had a few of these today, and I am thankful each one.

And, I am grateful for chocolate.  Yes, chocolate!  What an amazing discovery…the cocoa bean.

I am grateful for a growing circle of friends who want to share their own unique gifts to help my children in some fabulous way.

I am grateful for the Hanukkah menorah and the tradition of lighting the candles every night with family…taking those moments to connect with each other and connect with our Source.

I am grateful for the Christmas lights on everyone’s house beautifully lighting up the dark winter nights.

Sometimes we can be grateful for the fact that life is circular. Often it’s a blessing that some experiences don’t last…economic downturns, illness, heartache, loss, unhealthy relationships, and the stages that children go through (some of which are very challenging!)

How grateful we are when things begin to turn around. How we appreciate our health when we’ve just recovered from an illness. How much more we appreciate our children when they’ve grown out of the tantrum stage or the teenage stage.  How we appreciate loving, healthy relationships when we’re conscious enough to create them. How we appreciate seeing our investments grow again!

Today, I am grateful for these and more.  And, for those experience that are currently challenging, I call forth a blessings from them…a new insight…a lesson learned, never to be repeated again…a growth in consciousness that is in the process of out-picturing in my experience as abundance of good in some magnificent way.

I am grateful for this too.

I am so grateful that so many people are discovering this Gratitude Experiment, coming to the site and participating! 

I am grateful for the opportunity of interviewing a wonderful woman (Kristin Maschka) on my Mom-Tales Radio Show yesterday who give me and all the listeners really good tips about how to remodel our experience of parenthood and how to create a happier marriage and family.

I am grateful for my daughter’s math tutor.  She’s now such a confident student and…wonder of wonders…got an A in math.

Another way in which practicing proactive gratitude transforms our experience and draws more good into our lives is this…

After awhile, it becomes easier to see the blessing even in frustrating, unpleasant experiences. In contrast, if you told yourself, “I’m going to look for the good in all my experiences today…even the negative,” that’s not an easy thing to do. Most of us forget and the practice fades from our awareness in a day or two. 

But, after participating in proactive gratitude (particularly with the support of the group site) finding the blessing in the negative becomes natural.  Your mind is already thinking along the lines of noticing the blessings. The energy has already been created.  Your awareness has already begun to receive good.  

Just notice it today…when you’re stuck in traffic…when you’re waiting for a long line…when you don’t seen to have enough money to pay that bill…when someone is mean to you.  These experience often knock us off center and push our button and we tend to spiral down into feeling like we’re a victim.  Instead, with the energy you’ve created by practicing proactive gratitude, your mind will more naturally begin to notice what’s good in that situation.  You will stop and notice something else…something you hadn’t noticed before…something that is actually a blessing. 

Just noticing it calls it forth.