The Power of Gratitude

Facebook taught me gratitude.

Really.
Well, ok, not the webiste or app itself of course, but my friends did.
Last summer my friend, Susan, also a teacher, invited us to a closed gratitude group on the social media site. We were asked to post one thing we were grateful for each day.
This daily practice of gratitude created a miraculous transformation in our lives. A couple of group members started very negatively, having to work hard to find a positive after a spine crushing car accident and a debilitating illness accompanied by chronic, intense pain. But by searching, finding, and sharing the positives, their joy  grew. The pain lessened. The spine began to heal. The support as we "liked" each others' posts was affirming. We continued. Several of us, although we still had not met, became Facebook friends outside of the group because we were involved in each others' lives  last summer.  

 
For me the practice of gratitude reached a peak regarding my ex-husband. I left the marriage with a lot of fear, anger, resentment, betrayal, distrust, and disenchantment.  Through the practice of gratitude, I got to the place where I could only feel grateful. I was able to put this into practice while texting with his first wife last July. Yes, she and I have never met, but keep in touch often. :-) I am grateful for that, too. For some reason she  kept bringing up my old stories from my two year marriage. 
She sent messages like, "I can't believe he lied to you about his credit cards." I replied, I am grateful that I learned the questions to ask before marrying again. 
"I can't believe he let J (her 2nd son) call you a B*#$@!" and I replied, "I am grateful for the person I've become after our divorce. I am grateful I know I deserve to be treated better."
And so that conversation went. It was really strange because we don't normally text about him and we have never rehashed the past after our first phone conversation where we each shared our stories. But 
every dig into the past only brought one emotion to the surface- gratitude. It welled up inside the way  tears well in your eyes and just poured forth from my thumbs as I texted, "I feel grateful, I feel grateful. I feel grateful.". 
Over time, the gratitude group faded from Facebook. People moved on into their joyful, grateful
lives.

A New Challenge 

This summer I was invited by a friend for a different type of Facebook gratitude challenge. She
posted 3 things she was grateful for then asked me to do the same for ten days. I was to invite two
friends each day the way she invited me.
Today is my tenth day. I have enjoyed watching the gratitude grow over my newsfeed. Some of the
people I have invited have not joined the challenge. That is ok. Those that have are already seeing the magic. A friend yesterday struggled to find three things to be grateful for as her computer kept
crashing with all of her photos on the hard drive, but not backed up elsewhere. Friends offered
suggestions for Passport or Carbonite online as back up ideas.
Today she already had the turn around.  She said she was grateful for her computer crashing because it pushed her to come up with a backup plan like she knew she had been meaning to do for some time. 
That is something else I found with last summer's gratitude group.  We often experienced the "turn around" where a sad, frustrating, or enraging experience could actually lead to gratitude later. 

Are you up for the challenge? I know you are.  

Give it a try.  What are you grateful for?  How can you celebrate with others? 
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Start a gratitude journal
Create a Facebook gratitude challenge or group
Join the http://100happydays.com/ challenge
What ideas do you have for practicing gratitude?