Resource Type: Gratitude

The affirmative note we strike at the outset of the workshop will continue to reverberate.  In the stages of the work and the practices that follow, notice how consistently gratitude is summoned.  Even in Honoring Our Pain, we are reminded to be thankful– for the chance to speak the suffering, and for each other. Gratitude… Read more

(30 minutes with instructions and story) A simple, beautiful practice has been spreading along with the Work That Reconnects. To celebrate their commitment to life and their solidarity with activists the world over, people join hands in a circle dance. Set to the haunting strains of a Latvian song by Ieva Akuratere, and choreographed by… Read more

(30 minutes) This lively process is a great way to learn about the Great Turning and generate appreciation for what people are already doing.   Method:   Clear a circular space, 6 to 10 feet in diameter, around which people sit closely together.  If participants number more than 12 or so, consider making two circles… Read more

The Gratitude stage of a workshop is an excellent place to introduce the Great Turning.  We strongly recommend describing the Great Turning within the context of the “three stories” as set forth in Chapter 1.  This can help us be thankful for the chance to choose the version of reality we want to live by.… Read more

(40 minutes) The Mirror Walk, adapted from the familiar Trust Walk, awakens sensory awareness and a fresh sense of gratitude for life, as well as providing a change of pace and focus. An excellent training for the ecological self, it helps people experience the world as their larger body—imagining when they open their eyes, at… Read more

(30-40 min) It’s so easy to take the things and beings in our lives for granted.  Then it helps to move back a little, and gain a bit of distance, in order to glimpse how precious and how uniquely real–they are.  As with a quick turn of the lens, we see with fresh appreciation. Method… Read more

(30 minutes) Open Sentences is a structure for spontaneous expression. It helps people listen with rare receptivity as well as speak their thoughts and feelings frankly. People sit in pairs, face to face and close enough to attend to each other fully.   They refrain from speaking until the practice begins.  One is Partner A, the… Read more

(1-2 minutes per person) Group introductions are a good place to bring in gratitude. Perhaps writing the list up where everyone can see it, invite people to briefly share the following, their name and where they are from one thing they want us to know about them one thing they love about being alive in… Read more

Most of us are braced, psychically and physically, against the signals of distress that continually barrage us in the news, on the streets, from the natural world. This chronic state of tension inhibits our vitality and gratitude as well.  At the outset of a workshop, therefore, we turn to the breath, the body, the senses–for… Read more

The originating impulse of all religious and spiritual traditions is gratitude for the gift of life. Yet we so easily take this gift of life for granted, which perhaps is why many spiritual paths begin with thanksgiving, to remind us that for all our woes and worries, our existence itself is an unearned benefaction. In… Read more