Blog Profiles: Gratitude Blogs
Welcome to Blog Profiles! Each week, we select a topic and handful of blogs that do a great job contributing to the conversation. As Thanksgiving approaches, we’re recognizing a few gratitude blogs. Do you have a blog that deserves recognition? Tweet our writers at @BeyondBylines.
When I commit to the “Blog Profiles” I write, I am generally inspired by the seasons and/or current events. My original idea was to profile “gratitude” blogs in advance of Thanksgiving and to help put everything in perspective.
As anyone who regularly uses gratitude for their personal wellbeing knows, these are the times when it helps the most. With that on my mind, here are some of the gratitude “blogs we love.”
1. Wake Up with Gratitude
Author Julie Boyer, who also wrote a book titled Wake Up with Gratitude, has taken her work online with a website and blog. The honesty in her blog posts like “Why Am I So F*ing Tired?” really got my attention. The rawness of the post and Boyer’s commitment to still show gratitude is motivating, considering she wrote the post in April and it is still applicable all these months later.
The blog is a good source of easy ways to be grateful, especially helpful given it’s November. The short poem in the post “A Recipe for Simple Gratitude” is a quick gratitude practice in and of itself. Boyer also recently documented a simple but powerful gratitude practice that anyone can add to their daily routine.
Reading this blog can really help you set a thankful tone for the holiday season.
Follow @juliecmboyer on Twitter.
I used to be frustrated & disappointed with my body. Now I treat her with Gratitude.https://t.co/WxTpzJOUc2
— Julie Boyer (she/her) (@juliecmboyer) November 6, 2021
2. Gratefulness.org
The Gratefulness.org blog is like having a warm cup of tea with a wise grandmother; it soothes, comforts, warms, and still informs your soul. The Gratefulness community, linked to Benedictine monk Brother David Steindl-Rast, aims to “inspire and guide a commitment to grateful living.”
The mission is carried out with misty images and “reflections” rather than comments on each page. In posts like “Waking Up to What Is: Grateful in the Face of It All,” you are left with thought-provoking takeaways like, “Gratefulness does not require that I substitute happiness for the richness and teachings of struggle.” Even as I started this blog post, I was equating gratefulness and happiness (at least cheerfulness), so reading that gave me some perspective. I am grateful for the richness and teaching of struggle.
Expect lots of introspection when reading this blog.
Follow @GratefulnessOrg on Twitter.
How can grateful living become more of a daily practice in my life?https://t.co/tMhYLNT2WA #DailyQuestion #GratefulLiving #Gratefulness #Gratitude pic.twitter.com/WpAJJzDpMw
— Gratefulness (@GratefulnessOrg) November 10, 2021
3. Habitual Gratitude
Habitual Gratitude is a gratitude blog that puts into practice what the Gratefulness blog is guiding. Blogger Lisa Valentine provides a daily jolt of gratitude from her life. The posts are usually a quick read and are her personal experience of gratitude.
The posts on Habitual Gratitude are an incarnation of the gratitude process, which the audience has the benefit of experiencing firsthand. A timely representation of the process can be seen in the post “Exercising . . . Rights and Body.” Being grateful for the right to vote but knowing that with rights comes responsibilities is that self-examination found in the gratitude practice.
A more recent post, “Yellow, Red, Green,” is a reminder to embrace the yellow and red and be thankful for the times that you can slow down. It applies to more than just the morning commute.
Follow @HabitgratLisa on Twitter.
Habitual Gratitude: Are we suckers or what? (A Rant) https://t.co/5nOKLbBAew The holiday that gets lost in the shuffle between the highly profitable sales of Halloween and Christmas is maybe the one we need to reclaim.
— Lisa Valentine (@HabitgratLisa) November 7, 2021
