Last week I shared a brief introduction to One-Word Gratitude.
Two people messaged me (outside of Substack) with similar messages - saying they really liked that prompt/exercise.
Right now, while writing this prompt:
the prompt referenced above has 23 views
this whole newsletter has 13 subscribers
and my substack has 20 followers
I’ll take TWO (2) unprompted messages from unrelated people as “statistical significance” that I should share more about this practice.
After me, my wife Jennifer Deas, is usually the first one to test anything I do. Which was the case with One-Word Gratitude.
One of these days, maybe she and I will record a podcast episode about her first 100 days doing the practice.
But if I remember correctly, her “directions” were similar to what I shared here last week.
Pick a word.
Think about what you have to be grateful for related to that word.
My brain loves to complicate things.
So I quickly combined my One-Word Gratitude practice with other creative gratitude frameworks.
One is what I call “The Gratitude Ladder”.
When you’re on the bottom rung of the ladder you can only see what YOU have experienced that you can be grateful for.
Once you step up a little to the middle rungs of the ladder, you begin to see what people you know may have experienced that you can be grateful for.
When you reach the top rungs of the ladder, you gain a clear view of what strangers may have experienced that you can be grateful for.
As you practice One-Word Gratitude, you may find some words difficult to relate to something you’re personally grateful for.
But what if it can relate to something your family and friends might be grateful for? Or even to something a stranger might be grateful for?
It still only begins with one word.
You just get to use your imagination a little more this time.
Take 60 seconds and think about what you, people you know, and people you don’t know have to be grateful for about the word.
Today’s (One-Word) gratitude prompt: