It takes five to ten minutes, 20 if you're ambitious, 30 if you're an overachiever.
I light a candle and turn on Pandora to my favorite mix of music. I breathe deeply for a few minutes and listen to the music. You can call it meditation but it isn't necessary to chant or get mysterious about it.
I write two paragraphs or a page in longhand, in my best handwriting with my favorite pen, about the things I'm thankful for that day. It can be anything from breakfast to eyesight to my grandkids.
In a very few days you'll begin to realize how rich your life is, how precious. A new optimism and energy will flow out of you. It increases as you celebrate the abundance of your life, and your own courage, strength and hope.
Over time you can combine it with other exercises like compiling a dream book of images and words that inspire you, something to look at for a minute or two every day. Think a little about what you want, what you want to accomplish, the kind of person you want to be.
Living intentionally is a very powerful thing. It has brought me a lot of optimism, confidence and joy.
---
I am grateful for health, energy and an alert, inquisitive mind. I am grateful for a good night's sleep, good food, a good workout, and a warm pleasant day.
I am thankful for my clean, well-lighted place, the study that gives so much comfort and inspiration.
I am thankful for a job that allows me to write and learn, pays my way, gives me a daily practice of mental acuity in a pleasant environment.
I am grateful for the the comforts and conveniences of civilization, hot showers, clean clothes, a tooth brush, a home, a place of my own.
I am grateful for the opportunity to practice courtesy and spread light.
I am thankful for my lessons, failures and sorrows, for all they have taught me, for the unmined lessons of acceptance and discovery within their borders.
I am grateful for choice, for will, for the freedom to choose what I do and how I think, how I respond and react to what happens around me.
(Photo by nature photographer David Dennis.)