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Create Harmony
This is a podcast about setting an intentional rhythm, savoring life’s blessings and learning how to use our imagination as a way of listening to God. If you want to learn more about how to bring stillness and gratitude into your life you’ll probably find a lot here that you love. To find out more about what's going on in the Create Harmony world, check out www.mycreateharmony.com.
Create Harmony
It's that time again- GrateFall!
Ever notice how we instantly feel when something goes wrong, but rarely pause to appreciate when things work perfectly? That's human nature—and it's exactly what we're challenging in this episode kicking off our annual Great Fall gratitude series.
Gratitude isn't just a nice sentiment; it's scientifically proven to help us live longer, sleep better, and experience greater happiness. The beautiful thing? Unlike most wellness practices, it requires no special equipment, costs nothing, and is available to everyone regardless of circumstances. It's perhaps the most accessible tool we have for improving mental wellbeing in our chaotic world.
The key insight from this episode is that effective gratitude requires getting granular. When our standard "I'm thankful for family, home, and health" lists become stale, we need to zoom in on the overlooked details of daily life.
We're also thrilled to announce our partnership with mental wellness boutique Petal and Pink for our upcoming seasonal Peaceful Pathways boxes! Launching November 1st (perfect for holiday shopping), the winter "Cozy Time" box includes five guided meditations and complementary items designed to enhance your wellbeing practice. Additional seasonal boxes will follow throughout the year.
Join us throughout this series as we explore fresh approaches to gratitude and discover the extraordinary in ordinary moments. How might your life transform if you started noticing what's working instead of what's broken?
To learn more, go to mycreateharmony.com
Welcome to the Create Harmony podcast. You have found a space where we savor life's blessings and we use the gift of imagination as a way of listening to God. If you're seeking a life with more stillness and gratitude, you're going to discover a lot of inspiration right here. And if you love creativity and fun, you're going to discover a lot of inspiration right here. And if you love creativity and fun, you'll be right at home Together. We're going to pause for a few minutes just each week to celebrate those everyday joys. We're going to notice goodness all around us and let peace settle into our hearts. So this is episode 144, and I am your host, sally Burlington. So this is episode 144, and I am your host, sally Burlington.
Speaker 1:So today the time has rolled around again where we kick off our fall series that we do it each fall and it's called Great Fall. You get it. It's about gratitude and it happens in the fall. Great fall, great F-A-L-L. It's all about gratitude and feeling thankful for the blessings in your life, and we are so excited about the things that we have planned for Great Fall this year, so we dedicate several episodes during this season to this discussion and we just try to focus, zoom the lens in on how to be more grateful and when thinking about gratitude, my sense is that the first step in gratitude is noticing. That's the big part of how gratitude operates best. It's taking time to notice the things going on around you and then, after you notice them, giving thanks for those things. But the big issue is our brains only tend to notice things that cause us discomfort. We notice when we don't get a good night's sleep or we feel under the weather or we get hungry, and if you're like me, you don't naturally notice all the days that you were feeling good or the days that you got a good night's sleep and you slept well and you feel great. But finding time for gratitude really makes big shifts in our mental well-being and in this world, we need to make big shifts in our mental well-being. This time of year we always take time to remember that people who practice gratitude, they tend to live longer, they tend to be calmer and happier and they tend to sleep better. So don't you want a little bit more of that sleep better? So don't you want a little bit more of that?
Speaker 1:Gratitude is available at all times. It's everywhere, it's free of charge and in a world that's filled with things that we have to achieve and things that we have to get done, practicing gratitude seems like pretty low hanging fruit. You don't have to be smart or pretty or rich to do it. Even if you've had a rotten day, gratitude can make you feel better, so that's why we do it. That's why we dedicate this time in the fall to focus intently on gratitude and, of course, we have gratitude woven into all of our offerings. The things that we do all throughout the year are grounded in gratitude, but taking these series of weeks just keeps it more top of mind. Now it's important to point out that the best way to experience higher levels of gratitude is to figure out a way to put some sort of practice into your routine.
Speaker 1:But I'm going to be honest even though I deeply believe in the benefits of gratitude and I think that they're really valid and important and I know that my life will be better there are some things I've tried some different practices over the years that just kind of fall flat. They become these rote behaviors that don't really add any meaning into my day, and I tend to go back. When I'm, when I'm trying to, like, make a list of my blessings, I tend to go back to the same old things and count those among my blessings. You know my family, my church, a warm house, my sweet dog. You get the picture. You probably are like that too, and it's taken me a while to find ways to keep this practice fresh. I've learned that seeing more blessings sometimes requires me to get really granular about my life and taking time to notice the things that probably I'm taking for granted.
Speaker 1:Now here's an example. At the beginning of last week our internet service just went out, inexplicably, we don't know why, just poof, it was gone. It was gone and we had we tried to go through the whole process of getting it fixed, but in the end we had to schedule a service technician to come out and fix it, and of course that tech could not come until the next day, and so that meant we had more than 24 hours of no internet. And then after that, after they fixed the internet which fortunately they were able to do we had to reset all of our devices and go through this long hullabaloo to get everything back up and running, and that was kind of frustrating, but it was a good reminder that my internet service is something that I had been taking for granted. I had not even thought about being thankful for that.
Speaker 1:My likelihood with my friends is to talk more about the frustrations of technology than the benefits, and those are the kinds of things that I need that I mean when I say I need to get more granular, and I also need to be thankful for people who work on the weekends to get my service back up and running. I mean, the guy came on a Saturday and got us back up to speed and we had the resources to pay. If we had had a more complicated fix that was necessary and would have had to have paid for it. We do have the resources. So being thankful for those things are important, because I don't want to only remember those good things when they go bad. I want to be better about feeling thankful even when everything is running smoothly, and I bet you want to see more good things in your life too. We have plenty of attention on bad things. There are so many. You just glance around the world and you can see 10 bad things in about 10 minutes. But I want to feel more thankful for all of those good things that are there but we're often not noticing, and that is what Great fall is all about. So stay tuned. Throughout all of our episodes, we'll bring your focus back on things that make your life better. And speaking of making your life better, I want to remind you about something that's coming from Create Harmony this fall.
Speaker 1:So we've partnered with our friends at Petal and Pink to create a seasonal series of peaceful pathways. So first of all, if you're not familiar with Petal and Pink, let me tell you a little bit about who they are. It's a mental wellness boutique here in our town in North Carolina, and they have the most unique and interesting things gift items and journals and books and fidgets all sorts of things that will raise your mental well-being. These are one of a kind things things that you have not seen other places and they're always changing their inventory. They always have something new and interesting and it's just a great place. So we've partnered with them. Amy, who runs Petal and Pink, and I have been working together for a series of months to create this new seasonal series. So it's the first thing you would receive is a box this fall or winter. The theme of the box is cozy time, and in the box you'll get five guided meditations that were designed and recorded by me. And then you'll get gift items that Petal and Pink has supplied that help reinforce the experience. They're all cozy, oriented items that you can use to couple with your meditation time or individually, and there's just so many ways that this can bless your life. And not only will you get a box this winter, you'll continue to get a box, one in the spring, one in the summer and one next fall, so it's just the gift that keeps on giving. The launch date for this is going to be November 1st and that is ahead of your holiday shopping. So you want to put that on your list so that everybody can get that. All of your people that you shop for for the holidays can get a seasonal series box. So that's what's coming and it will definitely make your life better. It's definitely a good thing and you don't want to miss it. Now for our closing.
Speaker 1:Today, I want to share a reading called A Prayer for Gratitude and it's written by Saint Francis of Assisi and in a book called my Heart Overflows. Most High, all-powerful Good Lord, to you all praise, glory and honor and all blessing. To you alone, most High, they belong, and no one is worthy of naming you. Praise be to you, my Lord, with all your creatures, especially my Lord, brother Sun, who brings day and by whom you enlighten us. He is beautiful. He shines with great splendor. He shines with great splendor Of you Most High. He is the symbol.
Speaker 1:Praise be to you, my Lord, for Sister Moon and the stars In the heavens. You formed them clear, precious and beautiful. Praise be to you, my Lord, for Brother Wind and for the air and for the clouds, for the azure calm, for all the cl climbs by which you give life to your creatures. Praised be to you, my Lord, for Sister Water, who is very useful and humble, precious and chaste. Praised be to you, my Lord, for Brother Fire, by whom you enlighten the night. May it be so. We're so glad you joined us today to start the kickoff of our Great Fall series, and I know you're going to want to stay tuned for all of the gratitude conversations we'll be having over the next couple of weeks. And don't forget to mark your calendars November 1st. You don't want to miss our seasonal series and hope you'll be back next week to join us again. And until next time, peace, thank you.
