Each November I practice a form of Mindfulness that I describe as living in the energy of Gratitude.

For the entire month, I wake up each morning expressing my thankfulness for people, places and things in my life. I challenge myself to find different, unique and new things to be grateful for each day, never to repeat the same ones for the 30 days of November. I continue with this state of mind ("be-ing" ) all day and end the evening reflecting upon how many things I have to be grateful for each day. This is what I describe as Level One of my practice.

Level Two is when I reach out to people in my life (during the entire month) and have a direct conversation with them, thanking them for being in my life and explaining to them what I appreciate, love and respect about them. I engage in this practice for the entire month of November and it often shocks people, as I share my thoughts and feelings with every person I see each day, from a clerk at the store, to a good friend, a stranger...

Given the chaos of 2020, many people think we've never seen such tough and challenging times like these. I think history repeats itself and there have been situations throughout the centuries here on earth where we've been rocked to our core and asked to find our inner strength and rise again.

Perhaps you've read this piece before, many of you might connect with it for the first time. It was written 100 years ago and I think the advice bears repeating again, as it is a timely today as it was then.

Here's a small sample from this poem...

..."You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should".

It's called Desiderata, a poem written by Max Ehrmann.

You can read it here.