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It’s back! The Season of Gratitude was a great hit last year, so I’m bringing it around once again. For the newbies, the Season of Gratitude is a consciousness experiment to see what can happen in our lives individually and collectively when we focus on what we enjoy. Last year over 100 stories of gratitude were submitted and it surely was a Thanksgiving feast.

For 30 days leading up to Thanksgiving (US Holiday), from Tuesday, October 23rd (today) through Wednesday, November 21st, Balanced Life Center will be all about gratitude and thanksgiving.

I’ll start off each weekday with a gratitude post. On Sundays, I’ll post a roundup of the gratitude stories I received that week.

How to Participate

1. Write a Gratitude Post

Be as creative as you like. Posts can be funny, serious, long, short, a list, a story, pictures, video, from the recent past, or nostalgic. You name it. Just 2 requests:

• Remember to be thankful.
• Keep it clean and family friendly.

2. Share Your Gratitude Stories

Tell me all about it. I will send a link back to your site. Here’s how:

• Send me an email via the contact form.
• Put “Season of Gratitude” in the subject Line.
• Make sure you include your name (as you want it to appear in the list), your post title and the URL to your post (not just to your blog’s front page).
• Submissions will be accepted through 3PM Eastern Standard Time on November 20th.
• Submit only new posts.
• You don’t have to participate everyday, but when you do, please submit only one post per blogger per day (not one post per blog).
• I will link to your post from the Season of Gratitude main page. (Currently, that page is the #1 landing page for searches on this site, and it has less than a 40% bounce rate.)

You can let your readers know you’re participating by putting a link back to this post in your post. You can even use the logo. It’s not required, but it is greatly appreciated (thank you ). It will also help to share the energy.

3. Go Around the Table (Surf, Surf, Surf)

Share in the Thanksgiving feast. Surf the submissions received, leave comments, make connections with other Balanced Life Center readers and enjoy reading what others have to say.

4. Pass the Sweet Potatoes (Link, Link, Link)

Share with your readers gratitude moments you found interesting, thought provoking, funny, or inspiring by linking to other submissions.

Bonus: For every story submitted to the Season of Gratitude, I will donate $5 to Heifer International (up to $500). “Heifer’s mission is to work with communities around the world to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth.” The best part is that the gift that you purchase starts with one family and can go on to support an entire community.

Join me in the 2nd Annual Season of Gratitude!

In Spirit,
Nneka

This post is part of the Keys to Happiness Series. The keys to happiness are courage, generosity, connection, clarity, presence, non-attachment, and gratitude.

In the world of personal development, it may seem completely absurd to mention non-attachment as a key to happiness. However, in the world of spiritual development it makes perfect sense. The good news is: It doesn’t have to be either/or.

You can have your goals and achieve them without clutching them in a vice grip. In the process of enjoying your journey to success, you manifest coincidences that land you easily and joyously at your desired destination. I’ve heard it best expressed in the book Ask and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks.

…Become one who is happy with that which you are and with that which you have - while at the same time being eager for more. That is the optimal creative vantage point. To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation - with no feeling of impatience, doubt, or unworthiness hindering the receiving of it…

– Ask and It is Given, Chapter 4

Non-attachment should not be confused with non-action or the lack of goals. It simply means that while you will have goals, ideas for what you want your life and the world to look like, you don’t hold onto those ideas while you miss the experience of your life and the world in the present moment. For it is in the present moment that you make the choices that will shape your future.

In Spirit,
Nneka