Living in Gratitude

What would happen if you made gratitude your focal point for one full year? With Living in Gratitude, Angeles Arrien invites you to find out. Integrating the latest teachings from social science with stories, prayers, and practices from cultures and traditions spanning the globe, she presents a 12-month plan for making gratitude your foundation for daily living.

Opening with themes such as €œBeginning Anew€ and €œThe Power of Equanimity€ and progressing to €œLetting Be and Letting Go,€ €œThe Mystic Heart,€ and more, readers will steep themselves in €œthe parent of all virtues,€ exploring:?- How to overcome habitual tendencies toward envy, comparison, and narcissism;?- Blessings, learnings, mercies, and protections---the four portals to the grateful heart, and how to cultivate these key entryways in our work, relationships, health, finances, and personal growth;?- Journaling and reflection exercises, perennial and indigenous wisdoms, and universal practices for every season and situation.

€œThe practice of gratitude bestows many benefits,€ writes Angeles Arrien. €œAnger, arrogance, and jealousy melt in its embrace. Fear and defensiveness dissolve. Gratitude diminishes barriers to love and evokes happiness, keeping alive what has meaning for us.€ Living in Gratitude, is a dependable resource for making this cherished virtue your guiding light along life€s journey.
 
 
Praise for Living in Gratitude
 
€œThe daily practice of gratitude will enhance the quality of every aspect of your life, including better health, more fulfilling relationships, and greater financial abundance.  This book is the best manual I have ever come across to show you how.  I highly recommend it!€
€"Jack Canfield, coauthor of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and The Success Principles
 
€œHaving written about and practiced gratitude for over a decade, I felt there was nothing else to say about the topic.  Then I read Living in Gratitude.  Angeles takes the practice of thankfulness to a whole new level.  Month by month, she guides us with questions and reflections to use gratefulness to grow spiritually in work, finances, health, and relationships.  I give thank to her and to this book.€
€"M.J. Ryan, author of Attitudes of Gratitude and A Grateful Heart
 
€œAre you exhausted?  Disheartened?  Worried?  Please do yourself a favor and read this book.  Please allow this heart food to feed you at the deepest levels of your being.  This is more than a book€"it is a manual for living a life that you love and that matters, a life of savoring and serving, a life or inter-communication and grace.  Please, let yourself be fed.€
€"Jennifer Louden, author of The Woman€s Comfort Book and The Life Organizer
 
€œAngeles Arrien is one of the most gifted and generous teachers of our time.  She brings forward the perennial wisdom of traditional cultures and gives it accessible, pragmatic application that is essential to the health of our contemporary society.  Angeles Arrien is a rare and true wise elder.  She embodies what she teaches.€
€"Frank Ostaseski, founder and director of the Metta Institutue

 
Contents

1) January: Begin Anew
Four Concerns of Soul Making €“ Hopi Reminders for Starting Anew €“ Renewed Innocence: Five Qualities of Children

2) February:  Attend to the Heart
The Four €“Chambered Heart  -  Spoken and Non-spoken Verses of Love €“ Dalai Lama€s Practice of Cherishing Self and Others

3) March:  Compassionate Service
Five Principles of Compassionate Service €“ Luck:  Where Opportunity and Preparedness Intersect €“ Nabakov€s €œThrill of Gratitude€

4) April:  Mercy and Atonement
Spirituality of Empathy €“ States of Ingratitude €“ The Cultivation of Mercy and Forgiveness

5) May:  The Gift of Grace
Grace, Gravitas, and Gratitude €“ Memorial Day and Aboriginal Dreamtime €“ Nine Practices of Excellence from Japan

6) June:  The Power of Equanimity
Balance, Equanimity, and Renewal €“ Japanese Practice of Naiken €“ The Practice and Identification ofEquanimity

7)July:  Embracing Nature
Four Natural Qualities for Survival €“ Nature€s Three Laws of Governance €“ Four Soul Retrieval Places in Nature

8) August:  Cultivating Peace
Embracing Nonviolence: The Quaker Queries €“ Shifting Our Relationship to Conflict:  Questions from the Talmud €“ Three Guidelines for Fair Fighting

9) September: Opening to Guidance and Wisdom
Seven Outer Practices of Highly Effective People €“ Seven Internal Practices for Developing Spirituality and Character €“ Five Principles of Optimum Health

10) October: Letting Be and Letting GoDeeper Lessons of Living and Being Human €“ Longings and Belongings
Community and Celebration:  Being a Social Architect

11) November:  Grateful Seeing
The Breath of Thanks Practice €“ Indigenous Giveaway Practices €“ Grateful Seeking:  Looking for Goodness and What Is Working

12) December:  The Mystic Heart
The Holidays and the Mystic Heart €“ Two Kinds of Gratitude €“ Gift-Giving and Royal Generosity