It’s Day 1 of the Gratitude and Generosity e-Course!
In the next 7 days, I am going to share with you the strategy, exactly as I use it every day, that got me through the sometimes inevitable, sometimes self-instigated changes that I had to handle during the last 20 years. The most debilitating of these has been the gradual reduction in my eyesight. 20 years ago the process started that left me with one blind eye and one eye with severely reduced vision. I used this strategy to deal with the resultant dramatic change in my circumstances, including having to give up my career as a medical doctor, after spending 8 years training for it.
Before we start, use the first of your ten minutes to mindfully anchor yourself in the moment. Look at the photograph above. Now look at the room you are in. What do you like about it and what do you not like about this room? What do you hear? Birdsong? Traffic? People talking? What do you smell? Do you have, like me, a cup of coffee/tea to hand? Of what does it taste?
Now take a few slow, deep breaths. There you go, you are ready for the rest.
So how does this strategy work? It’s very simple. Every day, you will receive two quotes, a gratitude quote and a generosity quote. Read each of these carefully and then copy them onto your worksheet. Have you downloaded your worksheet yet? You do not have to use the worksheet; you can use any notebook/piece of paper/suitable app, the trick is to read and write the quotes down, thus increasing your ability to understand, absorb and use each quote. Copy today’s affirmation onto your worksheet too and respond to the gratitude and generosity (call to action) prompt.
Today’s 2 Quotes
Gratitude Quote
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” – Melody Beattie
Generosity Quote
“Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and full understanding you can muster, and do it without any thoughts of reward. Your life will never be the same again.” – Og Mandino
Gratitude Prompt
Today, on the first day of this course, all you have to do is list 5 people that you appreciate. Write down their names and write down why you are grateful that you know them. Limit yourself to one or two sentences, for example, I am thankful to my sister, for patiently listening to me when I told her about my relationship problems/Impossible boss/work demands/awkward teenager… It can be absolutely anyone: a parent, a grandparent, a son, a daughter, a sibling, a partner, a spouse, a friend, an ex, a colleague, a boss or a teacher. Let your mind wander into your past: one year ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago etc.
Call to Action
Choose one of the people on your list and give him/her a quick call or send him/her a quick text, e-mail or message telling them how grateful you are to him/her.
Daily Affirmation
Your gratitude practice ends today, and every day, with an affirmation. Read it, memorise it, say it out loud to yourself several times today, write it on a post-it and put it somewhere where you will see it often.
I love myself; I respect myself and accept myself exactly as I am and I treat myself with kindness.
That’s it for today. I hope a lot of things happen to you today that you will feel grateful for when you go to sleep tonight. Thank you so much for subscribing to this course and allowing me to share what I know with you. I hope it will enrich your life in many different ways.
Bien cordialement,
Margaretha Montagu .
margarethamontagu@gmail.com 
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PS. “Review what you are grateful for,” said Carolyn Kaloostian, MD, MPH, clinical assistant professor of family medicine at Keck School of Medicine, “it doesn’t matter if you do it in the morning, at lunch or in the evening. All that matters is you are specific when you do it – and that you do it once a day. This will help you set your attitude towards a state of abundance and attract more happiness into your life.”