start monday with gratitude

week 1

Welcome to Week 1, lovely soul. The first week on our journey together.

Below you'll find the video and video transcript introducing you to this week's quote and musings.

Scroll further and you'll discover this week's daily exercises.

Gratitude turns what we have into enough

Melody Beattie

video transcript

So many of us are focused on setting goals and always striving forwards to become better, to become bigger, to become more fulfilled.

However, often, as we attempt to strive forward, it becomes a chasing game. You achieve something but, before you recognise and celebrate that achievement, you’ve already moved on to the next goal, the next achievement, the next to-do/to-get/to-have/to-be on your list.

And so, it becomes an endless and relentless game of pursuit where what we already have never seems enough.

It’s exhausting and it’s soul-destroying to always be pursuing something that doesn’t exist. Because, if you don’t take time out to be grateful and to celebrate what you already have, what you’ve already achieved, you will never stop running this endless race towards accomplishment.

Having goals to aim towards is great. They keep us striving forward. However, it shouldn’t be a case of running blinkered through life: next goal, next goal, next goal.

It’s important to give yourself the time to celebrate every goal you reach, every achievement you meet, and every accomplishment you attain. When you do, you’ll soon realise that chasing after the next goal, the next achievement, or the accomplishment isn’t what brings you satisfaction, it’s the already knowing and the already appreciating that what you have already is already enough.

When you look at what you have achieved and what you have in your life, with gratitude, your perspective changes. You acknowledge just how abundant and fulfilled your life is already. You appreciate that what you already have, what you have already achieved is enough and something to be celebrated.

When you look at what you have achieved and what you have in your life, with gratitude, your outlook changes. The race of life slows down because simply achieving goal after goal after goal without recognising where you already are and what you already have isn’t bringing you the greater fulfilment you seek. The slowing down, the appreciating what you have already received and achieved, that’s where fulfilment truly lies.

daily gratitude practice

What’s been your greatest achievement to date?

What are you most proud of?

What have you done or been that, when you look back through the eyes of gratitude, you can say “Wow! That was me!”?

Remember this achievement in as much detail as you can and express gratitude for the ability and the opportunity that enabled you to achieve it.

We’re going to continue the rest of this week focusing on something you have achieved.

Today I invite you to think of and focus on something you achieved, against the odds. Through grit, determination, hard work, digging deep - whatever it may have taken – you kept moving forward until you achieved this.

What was it?

Remember the path you had to walk, the obstacles you had to overcome, recall as much as you can of your journey from the moment you first decided to achieve this to the moment you did achieve it.

Express gratitude for all you learned along the way, for the obstacles that stood on your path and helped you to grow stronger.

It’s always easier to think back to a big accomplishment and achievement in your life, to view the path you walked, the obstacles you had to overcome to achieve that you did.

But what about the seemingly small things you achieved in your life? The things that seemed to come easily and quickly? Do we discount them because they were easy to achieve? Of course not.

What was easy for you to achieve, would have been a challenge for someone else.

The challenging part for you is to, now, recall one of the smallest achievements in your life, give gratitude for how easy it was for you to achieve that, and how little effort it took.

You’ve considered your greatest achievement to date and also recalled one of the seemingly smallest achievements in your life.

What about everything you accomplished in between?

What accomplishments and achievements have you forgotten about simply because they weren’t your biggest achievements or because you haven’t taken time to remember the seemingly small and possibly deemed insignificant achievements?

Now’s your opportunity to recall one.

What achievement or goal have you accomplished in your life by putting in some effort; an achievement or goal which you deemed to be mediocre, nothing big enough to celebrate?

Now’s your chance to recall it in as much detail as possible and celebrate and give thanks for your ability to achieve it.

What have you achieved already today?

Have you completed a project you’ve been working on for a long time? Have you finished a small task that you’ve been putting off because there were ‘more important’ things crying out for your attention? Have you done something that came easily and naturally to you that, normally, you would gloss over and not celebrate?

What have you achieved today that you can express gratitude towards?

It can be a difficult road to walk when you want to achieve something when people around you either don’t think you’re capable, don’t support you, or don’t understand why you’d want to achieve it. Often, it’s so much easier to achieve something when you have support and people who believe in you as they will come forward and buoy you up when the road becomes challenging.

Think of an achievement you accomplished when others didn’t think you would, or you didn’t have the support you needed, or people didn’t know why you would want to pursue that goal.

Celebrate the journey you walked, alone, and express gratitude for your strength, resilience and abilities to achieve what you did.

It’s great and it lifts us up when we look back to our past and uncover accomplishments and achievements that we forgot to celebrate, both large and small.

But what about the present and very recent past? There’s always something to celebrate each and every day.

Look back through this week and celebrate and express gratitude for everything you achieved and accomplished.

and let's not forget...

This week's high vibe tune is all about "happy"

have gratitude wherever you go...

... with this week's gratitude quote wallpaper.

Note: details of how to download this week's wallpaper is provided below.

"Gratitude turns what we have into enough” ~ Melody Beattie

16:9

16:10

4:3

mobile

how to download your wallpaper

Before copying one of the pictures below, you'll want to quickly check your screen settings because the worst thing you can do is use a wallpaper with an aspect ratio that differs from the aspect ratio of your screen.

The aspect ratio of a rectangle is simply the proportion between width and height. The most common are 16:9, 16:10 and 4:3. And it will be for these 3 sizes that I shall provide you with your free wallpaper.

To find your screen resolution follow this basic guide. Steps for your computer may vary slightly but I hope this will give you some guidance:

  • Right-click the desktop and select Display settings.
  • Scroll down until you see "Resolution" (you may have to choose an "Advanced" option)
  • To find your aspect ratio, divide the width over the height. For example, if my resolution is 1920 x 1080 then I would divide 1920 over 1080 to get 1.778, which indicates a 16:9 resolution. Similarly, 1.6 indicated 16:10 and 1.333 indicates 4:3
  • When you've calculated your screen's aspect ratio, go to the picture below that matches that size
  • Right click on the picture and select "Set as Desktop Background"
  • Choose whether to "Fill", "Fit", or "Stretch" your picture - if you've chosen the right size "Fit" will be your best option
  • Select "Set Desktop Background" and you're done

  • First, save the wallpaper image to your phone by pressing your finger on the wallpaper image and hold down on it until you see a menu.
  • From here, click the “Save image” tab, and it will begin downloading.
  • The next step is to set this saved image as your wallpaper by pressing and holding a blank area on your screen (meaning where no apps are placed), and home screen options will appear.
  • Select 'add wallpaper' and choose whether the wallpaper is intended for 'Home screen', 'Lock screen', or 'Home and lock screen'.
  • Another set of options will appear where you can choose where the photo you would like to use will be coming from, namely the Gallery.
  • If necessary, crop the image to a suitable size. Once satisfied, simply click 'Done'.

  • First, save the wallpaper image to your phone by pressing your finger on the wallpaper image and hold down for about 2 seconds until a menu appears.
  • From here, click “Save Image“, and it will begin downloading.
  • The next step is to set this saved image as your wallpaper by, first, going to the 'Photos' app and selecting the wallpaper photo you've saved there.
  • Click on the share icon on the lower left corner of the screen, then select 'Use as Wallpaper'.
  • Then choose to set the photo as either the lock screen, home screen or both.