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Regular gratitude practice may influence what we notice later.

In some studies the effects of gratitude were measurable months later.

Thankfulness can sit comfortably alongside disruption and uncertainty.

A few hours before I crashed my car, I was horizontal on the floor of a friend's house being purified by fire. At least, that was what the card I'd drawn from her card deck suggested.

My friend had invited six of us to a sound bath, creating one of those safe, non-judgmental spaces where it feels easy to relax and let go. As she moved around us with her Tibetan bowls, I felt something begin to course through me.

It wasn't the soft golden light I'd vaguely expected. It felt more like fire, raw and cleansing, like a swift river of lava. Giving up on the soft tinkly bells I thought I'd signed up for, I surrendered to it and set an intention: to let anything that was out of alignment with the person I was becoming be swept away.

With hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have done that.

Afterwards, I drove to the beach. It felt important to plant my feet in the sand. I had one of those strict conversations with myself, as you do. Paraphrasing here: "Life has to change. The way I’m showing up isn’t working out so well."

Then I remembered a gratitude practice that I’d developed some time ago, a sequence I used to practice every day. It had helped me through a difficult period many years earlier when my life was changing profoundly. The present moment felt strangely similar, so I started talking to myself, out loud. Of course I pretended........

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