I wanted to share a short You Tube clip I ran across yesterday. It’s from Joshua Becker, of the Becoming Minimalist page. I know he’s pretty popular, to the tune of millions of followers. I think he has some books out, in addition to his social media pages and blog. Looks like he also has an active You Tube channel.
Honestly, I’ve not consumed much of his content, besides following his Facebook page. Some of the content I have peeked at is a little too…. much, or exaggerated, for my taste. I’m not a minimalist, nor do I specifically aspire to be, honestly. The whole “minimalism movement” needs to be in fairly small doses for me to tolerate. It’s kind of just not really my jam. At least not to the extreme.
That being said, we can probably all benefit from simplifying and minimalizing some things in our lives! So, I keep him in my feed, and I glance at his tips now and then. 🙂 He does produce some very thought-provoking, well-done articles.
This video is only around 3 minutes long, so if you’re looking to up your daily dose of gratitude (as you should!), take a look. 🙂
I especially like how he says that in some seasons of life, when everything is going really well, gratitude is EASY!
But he argues that gratitude cannot be simply a response to our circumstances.
It needs to be a “discipline of the heart”, or something that requires constant, consistent practice, every single day.
Then, when life is not easy, as it inevitably will not be, at some point, the true benefits of your gratitude practice will shine through.
Gratitude List
On that note, here is a gratitude list for today, from me.
1. The holiday lights!
The house is not fully decked out yet, but as you know, the tree is UP and it brings me great joy.
Also, Asher put his little tree up and lights around his window:
2. That my kids appreciate the holidays/ Christmas music
Hearing the boys sing along to Christmas songs in the car makes me happy. They know all the words, etc. It’s just cute, and I feel like as a result, they will grow into adults that also appreciate the holiday spirit.
3. For our hamster, Summer!
She is just the sweetest thing. She literally just sits, calmly in our hands while we pet her and snuggle her, never bites…. just the most chill hamster. And she’s so tiny!!! She’s our first Chinese Dwarf hamster, meaning she’s even smaller than our previous Winter White Dwarf hamsters.
(Speaking of hamsters, I’m so excited that SHU’s family just got a hamster, too!!!)
4. That Ivan made dinner last night!
He is a perfectly competent cook, he just doesn’t cook too often, because he gets home later most nights. (Like 6 pm at least or after) Last night, I had some returns to run back to a couple stores, so we planned that he would handle making dinner and we’d just eat later.
He made chuletas ahumadas– smoked pork (purchased special from the Mexican grocery store) simmered in the most DELICIOUS salsa (made with green tomatillos, chipotle peppers and jalapenos), pinto beans, potatoes….mmmmm it was absolute perfection. I told him, “You’re hired!” 😉 I’ll never cook again. hahahaha.
5. The snow currently falling outside??
Said cautiously, because, well, the first actual snowfall is always exciting, no matter how long you’ve lived in Wisconsin. But also not a fan, because Ivan has a ~35 minute commute, and I hate when he has to drive in snow…
GRATEFUL KAE 
Yes! I talked about this in my AMA when Stephany asked about marriage tips. Marriage can seem easy when life is moving along with no real issues, but when life gets hard, it’s easy to lose focus on it. Same with gratitude. It’s easy to be thankful when you and your loved ones are healthy, you have enough money and stability, and everything is all hunky dory, but it’s more challenging when things go askew!
Today I’m grateful for my dog’s joy in the snow. She was so excited.
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So true. We don’t necessarily realize we’re building up a habit of gratitude, until things are tough and we can instinctively fall back on some of those default tendencies to pay attention to the good stuff happening, too. Practicing it daily helps it become part of an overall mindset.
Love this and love that you show up here every day with lots of prompts for gratitude.
My grateful list today:
1) My easy, delicious lunch of tuna filling and mini nori
2) The kids are healthy enough to go back to school
3) A big report is almost finished and ready to be submitted (won’t need to do this again for a few months)
4) I put up the little artificial tree in the basement; I dithered, but just went ahead and did it and now I’m so glad!
5) The sun is shining…
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I watched a documentary by this guy and used to listen to his podcast. He inspired me to do this decluttering month-long challenge. Each day you get rid of a # of things that corresponds to that day. So on the 1st, 1 thing, the 2nd, 2 things, and so on. I did it in February so I think that meant I got rid of 435 things. I did this before I moved in with Phil and I think about 350’ish or more were books. I had sooo many books before I moved in with Phil as I used to buy a lot of books. But they no longer represented my tastes and I wasn’t going to re-read them, so I donated them to a literacy non-profit that sends books to literacy centers.
Phil is definitely a minimalist and he has rubbed off on me. I was never really someone who had a TON of things, outside of books, but I’ve become more of a minimalist over time. I love a good purge and have loved getting rid of kid stuff as they’ve outgrown things.
It’s been snowing on and off for the last 2 days now. I think we’ll end up with 4-5″ total? And then it’s going to get really cold. 😦 I don’t mind the snow, but I hate the cold. But I’m thankful that I bought all the kids coats/hats/boots/etc well before this weather arrived so we weren’t scrambling for stuff. And I’m thankful for my little space heater that is keeping my basement office cozy. And I’m thankful I could WFH today since I had a dr appt a couple of miles away!
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i agree that gratitude is a discipline to develop. actually. it’s better to remember to be grateful when things are hard. he’s such a good cook your husband!!! very impressed.
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I follow Joshua’s blog (haven’t read the book) and I am like you – I glance at some of his tips now and then, because in general, I think he has great content, but it can be a bit much/preachy sometimes.
Either way, gratitude is a great practice. It’s very easy to be grateful when things are good, but I also feel that when things go awry, it’s easier to focus on the (still) good things when you are constantly reminding yourself to have a grateful attitude.
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