Gratitude

Sick of your gratitude practice? Try this.

By Nicole Urdang | May 5, 2020
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There’s no question that counting your blessings can make you feel better, but if it becomes something you do on auto pilot and you’re not fully conscious of what you’re saying, it ceases to be meaningful. If that happens to you try this: When you’re focusing on what’s going wrong in your life, what you […]

Useful & Appreciated

By Nicole Urdang | July 9, 2012
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Man cannot stand a meaningless life. Carl Jung Viktor Frankl’s book, “Man’s Search For Meaning,” focuses on the importance of finding a sense of purpose in life, no matter how heinous your external circumstances. The first half explores different ways his fellow prisoners reacted to incarceration at Auschwitz, while the second part details Logotherapy, the […]

A Gratitude Practice That Doesn’t Make You Feel Guilty For Feeling Bad Despite Your Blessings

By Nicole Urdang | May 4, 2010
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Gratitude can be confusing. On the one hand, who doesn’t want to be grateful? Yet, when surfing the seas of depression, anxiety, anger, or any other intense emotion, gratitude may be the farthest thing from your mind. Even if you are going through the most treacherous, challenging time of your life, there will always be […]

A Simple Prayer & Permission To Be Ungrateful Sometimes

By Nicole Urdang | May 27, 2009
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When my children were in pre-school they said a little prayer before snack time: Thank you for the food we eat, Thank you for the world so sweet, Thank you for the birds that sing, Thank you God for everything. Over the past couple of years I have incorporated that poignant set of reminders into […]

Contentment & Gratitude: Two Paths to Creating Calm

By Nicole Urdang | January 2, 2009
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The Dalai Lama once said that happiness is contentment. But how does one cultivate contentment? Gratitude is a good place to start. Whatever is true for you now, whatever challenges you are facing, you can always find dozens of things for which to be grateful.  Can you see?  Hear? Taste? Touch?  Breathe?  Feel an emotion? […]