An extraordinary collection of resources for the Thanksgiving holiday featuring Pema Chodron, Robert Emmons, Brother David Steindl-Rast, Gregg Krech, pianist George Winston and more. Material to inspire you – concrete ideas for practicing gratitude and Thanksgiving.
Constraints Create the Possibility of Joy
By Susan Schnur (click on the image below to zoom into an embedded pdf!)
Question Your Life: Naikan Self-Reflection and the Transformation of our Stories
Edited by Gregg Krech — $3.98 Ebook or $10.95 Print When we travel, we have limited space in our bags. We try to take only what’s important and leave the rest behind. We would be wise to treat our stories the same way. We carry around our stories in our mind and heart. Some of these stories don’t serve us very well. They weigh us down. The renowned Indian pandita, Aryadeva, said, “To merely question that things might not be as they seem can shake the very foundation of habitual clinging.” Pythagoras questioned whether the earth was flat. Aristotle questioned whether the earth was flat. This questioning spirit changed the way we understand the shape of the world we live in. This book provides powerful examples of people who had a turn of the mind as a result of quiet self-reflection – a method from Japan called Naikan. People handcuffed by their past. A woman who hated her mother, a man estranged from his father, a pregnant woman hit by a train, a couple struggling with their marriage. Even a rabbi who neglected his shoes. If you’re willing to question your life, it may change the way you understand your own world . . . your own life. Lighten your load. See the world with new eyes. Find a path with a heart.
While we can’t change the past, we can change our attitude towards it, and thereby change our future. The practice of Naikan is a simple yet powerful method to achieve this, and Gregg Krech’s new book on Naikan is an excellent guide. Building on his previous book, Naikan: Gratitude, Grace, and the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection, Krech provides readers in each chapter with stories and prompts for inner development, gradually leading them through the stages of Naikan. Readers will finish this book with new insights into their life, an enriched gratitude, and a deeper personal understanding of the keys to happiness. —Chikako Ozawa-de Silva, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Emory University
Sipping a cup of Negativi-tea
by Gregg Krech 
For the past twenty years I’ve been presenting a scene at my workshops, in which a husband and wife come home after work and greet each other in the living room. One spouse begins by reporting the litany of problems faced that day – traffic, boring meetings, computer crashes, parking ticket, etc. . . When that spouse is done, the other one responds: “You think you had a bad day?? Let me tell you about my day.” And now we hear an even longer, and more dramatic, recounting of problems and complaints. By bedtime, both partners are emotionally exhausted and glad the day is over. I now offer a second script . . . Continue reading article
“ In between birth and death everything I have is a gift – my body, the clothes I wear, the knowledge I have, family and friends, hobbies I enjoy, the house I live in, and so on. The are all “mine”, but only as things temporarily entrusted to me during my sojourn on earth ” – Rev. Taitetsu Unno
Grateful For Nothing
by Gregg Krech 
My friend Donna had an interesting experience several weeks ago. She compared it to winning the lottery. She was so touched by this experience that she mentioned how grateful she was for things she normally takes for granted every day – water, trees, electricity and more. So what kind of extraordinary good fortune came Donna’s way? Why was she feeling so grateful, so lucky? Here’s what happened . . . Continue reading this article
Barefoot and Grateful
by Rabbi Rami Shapiro What are you grateful for? Start with the biggies: your kids, your marriage (maybe your divorce), life, a good job (or maybe just a job), family, friends, that kind of stuff. Then work on the Hallmark things: babies, puppies, daisies, sunsets, and babies playing with puppies among the daisies at sunset. But what about your shoes? Are you grateful for your shoes? Before you answer this question, take a close look at your shoes. You may have more than one pair, so pick the pair you wear the most. If they are in your closet, go and examine them. If they are on your feet, take them off, and let’s have a look. Read the entire article on the Thirty Thousand Days Blog
Stages of Gratitude
by Gregg Krech Many of us wish to be conscious of how our lives are blessed. We don’t want to be stuck in a 
complaint-based life. We want to be grateful. Yet we constantly regress to a state of mind where we focus primarily on our problems and complain about how hard and unfair life is. Our state of mind (and spirit) is a roller coaster, going up and down between feeling grateful and sinking into despair or resentment. The following stages may reflect where you are at any given moment. We don’t “attain” some higher stage and remain there. Instead we can develop . . . Continue reading article
Naikan: Gratitude, Grace and the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection
by Gregg Krech
The practice of Naikan is transformative. It is deeply personal. Naikan shines a light on your life that will soften your heart and open your mind, revealing truths that have been hidden from your view and leading you toward a richer, more joyful and more fulfilling life. This collection of essays, parables and stories will provide a rich introduction to Naikan and enable you to begin experiencing the benefits of this self-reflection practice on your own.
I hope to buy copies of this book for Christmas this year to give to all of the people I love. I read this book and applied its principles to my life and especially my relationship with my husband. It is transformative! By using the techniques discussed in this book, which are really very simple to use, you gain a truer, fuller picture of what is happening in any relationship in which you are involved. It has helped me to truly appreciate my husband, something that hasn’t happened in a very long time. Of course, he feels that appreciation and the result has been a wonderful transformation of our relationship. I recommend this book for everyone as I can’t imagine anyone for whom it would not be life changing in some degree. –From an Amazon review
Thanksgiving
by Gregg Krech (click on the image below to zoom in on the embedded pdf!)
Not Complaining –
by Brother David Steindl-Rast
“Later I asked myself, what is it that upset me? And the answer is change. And this is where all of this gets connected with gratitude. You see, I don’t want change. The little me doesn’t want change; it’s very allergic to change. You see how this is connected with complaining? It’s the little me against the rest of the world. And the little me sees itself as entitled to something. The world owes me something. But really what on earth does the world owe you when it comes down to it? Absolutely nothing.”
Expressing Gratitude is Transformative
by Roshi John Daido Loori
“ Expressing gratitude is transformative, just as transformative as expressing complaint. Imagine an experiment involving two people. One is asked to spend ten minutes each morning and evening expressing gratitude (there is always something to be grateful for), while the other is asked to spend the same amount of time practicing complaining (there is, after all, always something to complain about).
One of the subjects is saying things like, “I hate my job. I can’t stand this apartment. Why can’t I make enough money? My spouse doesn’t get along with me. That dog next door never stops barking and I just can’t stand this neighborhood.” The other is saying things like, “I’m really grateful for the opportunity to work; there are so many people these days who can’t even find a job. And I’m sure grateful for my health. What a gorgeous day; I really like this fall breeze.”
They do this experiment for a year. Guaranteed, at the end of that year the person practicing complaining will have deeply reaffirmed all his negative “stuff” rather than having let it go, while the one practicing gratitude will be a very grateful person. . . Expressing gratitude can, indeed, change our way of seeing ourselves and the world.”
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