When my good friend Elly gifted me with a Simply Grateful journal, I was thrilled, as I kept hearing about Gratitude’s cleansing powers. You know. Begin and end your day with thankfulness and your perspective will be more positive. I needed more positivity in my life as opposed to grumbling about struggles and frustrations. Instead of, “You’re so ungrateful.” So, I set to work, trying to record my gratitudes. 

But early in, I got stuck. 

I am genuinely grateful for my basic needs of food, shelter, and safety being met. Every day, I am truly grateful, for I have witnessed enough of those who struggle to adequately meet Maslow’s foundational and fundamental “Hierarchy of Needs.” But is it enough to start each day by recognizing that I have food, a home, and safety? 

“Thank you for abundant food.” 
“Thank you for a beautiful and comfortable home”. 
“Thank you for safety, that I don’t live in a war or crime-ridden environment.” 

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

The “shouldy” Assignment

Or “should” I stretch beyond rotely acknowledging the same ol’ even if I’m truly appreciative of the same ol’—day after day? Should I go deeper every morning? Beyond the basics? My Simply Grateful journal did not come with instructions, so I wasn’t sure if I was doing Gratitude “right.” 

I wondered, Can I feel spontaneous gratefulness and still count that as intentional daily thankfulness? That seemed contradictory, oxymoronic. And if Gratitude shows up in my day, perhaps in the middle, or throughout, but not at the start, does that equally count? And if I forget to journal my appreciations, what happens then? Will my gratitude journal recognize it?

Being a writer, I know journaling is meant to recognize and process and release, not to tangle my head and heart and gut. But my gratefulness felt like that—forced, like something on a To Do List. Like a self-imposed assignment. 

“Embodied Gratitude”

Until…I read two words, “embodied gratitude,” in a Richard Rohr message by Kaira Jewel Lingo, two days before leading an Embodiment Memoir Writing Class. A class that challenges women to discover more of their stories, embrace them, and in the process become more of themselves. To be…embodied beyond a dictionary definition: the representation or expression of something in a tangible or visible form. And instead, to live deeply from within my mysterious bountiful core. To be alive in the aftermath. 

I lingered on these words—”embodied gratitude.”

What does that mean? I wondered. 

The pairing of these unlikely words felt internal. Each held powerful personal themes in and of themselves; but when united, they seemed bolder, like the two raccoons that joined we humans for s’mores around our campfire. That was bold.

Lingo says, “Something in you is energetic and motivated to grow and deepen; it cares about your own inner life, your own happiness. Feel the goodness of this impulse in you that brought you to practice in the first place. A kind of faith in yourself and your own inherent goodness. Feel it in your body. Notice its qualities and characteristics, this strength of mind/heart. Open to it, let it grow in you…”

“Feel this gratitude in your body. Let yourself be nurtured, strengthened by it.”  

So What about the Simply Grateful Journal?

My friend Elly exudes gratitude, with or without a journal, but her gift launched an avalanche of “embodied gratitude” as I further explored Gratitude. (Thank you, Elly! I appreciate you.) This kind of Gratitude feels best for me, the kind that bubbles up from within my body—my heart leaps, my breath goes deep, my mind reaps, I seep with Gratitude. 

Gratitude that begins from within and embodies something without. 
Gratitude from without that embodies something within. 

I am grateful, not because of a To Do list or a shouldy assignment, but because my whole body, my whole being says, “Debby, both good and bad fill our world. Recognize the hardships and unfairness and abuse and violence, but don’t sink in it. Linger in it (long enough) when needed, but then let it go. Hold the ands, breathe deeply in and through them, whenever and however they show up, and don’t lose sight of the rising sun—day after day.”

Sometimes, and maybe most times, at least for me, gratitude slips up slowly, like how my body needs a good stretch before it feels ready to move through the day. I’m learning to appreciate more of you, more of me, more in and of this day; more of both the rising and setting sun.

December’s “Embodied Gratitude”

November, a month labeled with thankfulness, is now behind. We’re onto December and into the flurry of sales and shopping and for some, snow. My ungrateful side dreads December because my love language is not gift-giving or gift-receiving (unless it’s a foodie present). And I dislike snow. It’s cold. So all this gifting and “let it snow, let it snow, let it snow,” seems dreadful. 

But this year, this month, this December, I’m going to try to intentionally and spontaneously carry over from November, the gift of Gratitude—to be slow enough to spot it and present enough to embody it. And maybe I’ll write down my gratitudes if I remember. But if not, I will be comforted in knowing that I appreciated them in the moment.

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling,
Ring ting tingling too
Come on, it’s lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you
Outside the snow is falling
And friends are calling “yoo hoo”,
Come on, it’s lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you.

December 5, 2023.
Dear Simply Grateful journal, I am grateful for you.

Be Momentous

• Embody gratefulness this month, and beyond.
• Contact me if you’d like more information about my 2024 Embodiment memoir writing workshops.