Hi all. Grateful to be here and see all of these terrific comments.
I’m Kathryn, full-time writer exploring the complex relationship between art and mental health. I came to this work through my own lived experience of life-threatening depression and I practice gratitude to help counter that when it returns.
Hi, I'm June. I'm a retired nurse and nurse academic. I've become a late writer via Substack and I love it. As I get older - I'm 67 now - I am finding gratitude a serious way of life. I have lived a life with chronic anxiety and depression, but have learned that even in those depths there are many things for which to be grateful. This world blesses me every day with life, and life all around me, with colours and sound and drifting aromas, and a husband of 47 years, and friends and family. No children, by choice, and I'm grateful I made that choice too when I see the struggles of nieces and nephews and the worry of my siblings. I try to find pleasure in my life every day, and I have so much to be thankful for. It's not always easy, but it is the thing I reach for when there are not-so-good things happening around me. Here's to feeling the gratitude every day! 💐
Thanks, June, for your lovely note. I'm ten years in front of you and gratitude keeps growing in importance in my life. Glad we're both here in the Substack world where we can share gratitude and our gathered life wisdom.
Hi y’all, I just followed this link from Joyce’s most recent “Gratitude Mojo” newsletter. There are so many wonderful writers on Substack, especially in the mental health niche! My “Changing Lives” newsletter is at https://wendigordon.substack.com. It’s for anyone who wants to change lives, starting with their own, and is definitely helping me change mine!
Two of the many other great ones are Kathryn Vercillo’s “Create Me Free,” and Lisa Olivera’s “Human Stuff.”
I am grateful for the friends who've guided (sometimes pushed) me along a path that has taken me from Santa Barbara, CA, to Bend, OR, with a delightful number of stops in foreign countries. Thank you, Joyce, for creating a community of gratitude. I do believe gratitude changes everything! Andrea
Greetings all. I sign in to join the conversation and support the practice of gratitude. From the classroom to the White House, my life experience finds gratitude is a bridge to clear focus & positive social connections.
Anita Perez Ferguson on Substack at Diverse Voices in Western History 🙋
I'm Acadian Mi'kmaq from Aroostook, teaching in the Master of Public Health Department at California State University San Marcos, married without children (by choice), 65 years old.
How did I get to gratitude mojo? I worked with Joyce years ago as an assistant and she was an influential mentor who helped me find a career path in technology, healthcare, and research methods. She continues to inspire new thinking about my life and her writing encourages me to focus on the positive aspects. I tend to focus on the challenges in life: health and wealth disparities, the failures of American democracy, warfare, unfair taxation, oligarch systems, corporate manipulation, and… I choose to focus on these topics because I know change doesn’t occur without critical examination or educational efforts to promote awareness. Gratitude mojo punctuates my morning’s reading of the often-dark world news with a ray of hope and beauty. And Joyce’s writing is especially engaging and lifts my emotions.
What am I grateful for? Too much to describe here. Mostly, I’m grateful for the gifts that nature has provided me and continues to provide. But, I’m always aware of the dark side of life and feel sadness because nature is so cruel to too many humans. We have the know-how to build a more equitable world, yet we continue to make bad decisions.
I almost never read blogs and don’t know what substacker means. The only blog I read is Joyce’s. I prefer to listen to podcasts, especially while in the car, cooking or doing outside work.
My writing is usually focused on academic articles: American Indian education, older adult health, educational practice, and action oriented research. I don’t have intentions of retiring because I sense that my teaching is effective for transforming the sociopolitical conditions.
Before signing off and to not givie the appearance of being entirely depressed about the state of the world, I want to share a thought: Whenever you feel really discouraged about your condition and about your future, keep in mind that humanity continues to move on a path to progress. For example, King Louis IX, an example of extreme gluttony, never had Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, access to flushable toilets, or year-round citrus fruit. We do. Stay courageous.
Nice to meet you, Rodney. I’m Tara, also an academic, up in Idaho now. I spent 2 years in the 90s in Presque Isle and Caribou, and I compliment you on your Aroostook home country. As a Pacific Northwesterner, I appreciated the trees, terrain, and especially moose. I hope you get back there eventually, if that’s a goal.
Oh, my, Rodney ... you made me weep and laugh in one note. Your kind words will rest in my heart for a long time and I'm trying to decide which flavor His Royal Fatness would have chosen should he make a time leap into today's world.
Should we have the pleasure of hanging out anytime soon, I will take it as a personal challenge to lure you into the Substacker world. Perhaps a non-academic outlet would be a good thing ... for you and us both. We need all the passion that can be shared. Many hugs.
Thanks for the comments and support. Life is a juggling act for each one of us - we just keep getting new things thrown into the mix. 3 or 4 per week is a lot to have in the air at once,
I love the quote from Wally Amos - Thanks Joyce. I especially resonate with "the spirit of play and collaboration. he referred to." It's hard to have that spirit while at the same time feeling contempt for the "other." Becoming cynical or discouraged can become almost a default attitude, but a practice of gratitude keeps reminding us each day of what's right in this world.
My blog "Us AND Them," is focused on lessening the divide among our neighbors and beyond - we are indeed way more alike than different - it is truly in our DNA.
Thanks, Mark for sharing. Your post about sustainability really hit the mark for me. I started out thinking I could write 3-4 times per week ... and I could, but at what quality and what price? Glad you decided to balance your life ... we need your writings.
What a fun idea! Thanks for sharing @Martin Prior and his idea from his Substack, Never Stop Learning!
I have a morning "Gratitude" ritual....before I get out of bed. I think of 3 things I'm grateful for. One is something in the world. One is about someone I care about. And the 3rd is about me.
No matter how I feel when I first open my eyes, the 3 Gratitudes start my day with positivity.
I research the scientific benefits of kindness and share them in Kindness Magnet, my free, weekly Substack. As you might imagine, gratitude has a pretty big role in my writing (and my life).
Thank you, Joyce, for the inspiration you have brought into my world. I appreciate you. 💚
Thank you, Heather ... love your 3 gratitude practice. Great way to start the day. And, your Kindness Magnet is always an inspiration. Loved your clarification of Brain Fog this week. Makes me happy to think it's just information overload. ;-)
Hi. I'm Tara. I have 2 kids, a teen and a tween, and 2 cats. By day, I teach American literature or research and write for academic outlets. Substack for me is a place to write shorter pieces than my usual and explore voices and ideas. My newsletter finds enchanting passages from literature and asks how enchantment/art supports the aspiration of "united" states. I'm finding room in this theme to write things that are sometimes more personal or playful also. This has been a great pleasure. I think I owe my gratitude practice to Rodgers & Hammerstein: "Favorite Things" in The Sound of Music. :-) "When the bee stings," etc. has turned out to be scalable to any of life's emergencies. "Favorite things" matured into something like: What's ok/acceptable right now? How might this turn out to be better than it looks? and What is there to be grateful for right now? I'm grateful for the simplicity of Gratitude Mojo, like the ring of a bell, reminding me to check my gratitude thermometer and make sure it's in the healthy range. :-)
Tara ... how lovely to have you here ... you've brought "enchantment" back to my vocabulary. And I love the idea of a gratitude thermometer ... may have to steal that. Thanks for all your wisdom and shedding light on so many things. Substack, for me, is an enchanted place and an opportunity to hear so many new voices.
Hi, I am Jo-Anne, I am 60yrs of age married with 3 grown daughters and 4 grandchildren, I am an early riser. I am grateful that I am part of an amazing family and to feel loved and blessed
Love this idea. My name is Stephanie Jucar Cooley. The first thing I do every day is write what I'm thankful for in my green journal. If I don't do this ritual, my day feels off. Today, I was grateful for a beautiful morning, dogs that are good with my kids even though they drive me crazy, and my bed.
My substack is called Unpacking and I unpack the hard things we deal with adults when it comes to mental health, relationships, career, parenting. https://stephaniecooley.substack.com/
Welcome, Stephanie, and thanks for sharing about your gratitude practice and for helping understand how to deal with the hard things. One of the things I love most about Substack is the generosity of spirit coming from wise people.
Hi all. Grateful to be here and see all of these terrific comments.
I’m Kathryn, full-time writer exploring the complex relationship between art and mental health. I came to this work through my own lived experience of life-threatening depression and I practice gratitude to help counter that when it returns.
https://createmefree.substack.com/
Hi, I'm June. I'm a retired nurse and nurse academic. I've become a late writer via Substack and I love it. As I get older - I'm 67 now - I am finding gratitude a serious way of life. I have lived a life with chronic anxiety and depression, but have learned that even in those depths there are many things for which to be grateful. This world blesses me every day with life, and life all around me, with colours and sound and drifting aromas, and a husband of 47 years, and friends and family. No children, by choice, and I'm grateful I made that choice too when I see the struggles of nieces and nephews and the worry of my siblings. I try to find pleasure in my life every day, and I have so much to be thankful for. It's not always easy, but it is the thing I reach for when there are not-so-good things happening around me. Here's to feeling the gratitude every day! 💐
Thanks, June, for your lovely note. I'm ten years in front of you and gratitude keeps growing in importance in my life. Glad we're both here in the Substack world where we can share gratitude and our gathered life wisdom.
Hi y’all, I just followed this link from Joyce’s most recent “Gratitude Mojo” newsletter. There are so many wonderful writers on Substack, especially in the mental health niche! My “Changing Lives” newsletter is at https://wendigordon.substack.com. It’s for anyone who wants to change lives, starting with their own, and is definitely helping me change mine!
Two of the many other great ones are Kathryn Vercillo’s “Create Me Free,” and Lisa Olivera’s “Human Stuff.”
Welcome, Wendi ... so great to have you here.
Hello Fellow Gratitude Followers,
I am grateful for the friends who've guided (sometimes pushed) me along a path that has taken me from Santa Barbara, CA, to Bend, OR, with a delightful number of stops in foreign countries. Thank you, Joyce, for creating a community of gratitude. I do believe gratitude changes everything! Andrea
How lovely to see you here, Andrea. Hope to see you in SB one of these days.
Greetings all. I sign in to join the conversation and support the practice of gratitude. From the classroom to the White House, my life experience finds gratitude is a bridge to clear focus & positive social connections.
Anita Perez Ferguson on Substack at Diverse Voices in Western History 🙋
So happy to connect with you on the topic of gratitude! Andi
Hello everyone,
I'm Acadian Mi'kmaq from Aroostook, teaching in the Master of Public Health Department at California State University San Marcos, married without children (by choice), 65 years old.
How did I get to gratitude mojo? I worked with Joyce years ago as an assistant and she was an influential mentor who helped me find a career path in technology, healthcare, and research methods. She continues to inspire new thinking about my life and her writing encourages me to focus on the positive aspects. I tend to focus on the challenges in life: health and wealth disparities, the failures of American democracy, warfare, unfair taxation, oligarch systems, corporate manipulation, and… I choose to focus on these topics because I know change doesn’t occur without critical examination or educational efforts to promote awareness. Gratitude mojo punctuates my morning’s reading of the often-dark world news with a ray of hope and beauty. And Joyce’s writing is especially engaging and lifts my emotions.
What am I grateful for? Too much to describe here. Mostly, I’m grateful for the gifts that nature has provided me and continues to provide. But, I’m always aware of the dark side of life and feel sadness because nature is so cruel to too many humans. We have the know-how to build a more equitable world, yet we continue to make bad decisions.
I almost never read blogs and don’t know what substacker means. The only blog I read is Joyce’s. I prefer to listen to podcasts, especially while in the car, cooking or doing outside work.
My writing is usually focused on academic articles: American Indian education, older adult health, educational practice, and action oriented research. I don’t have intentions of retiring because I sense that my teaching is effective for transforming the sociopolitical conditions.
Before signing off and to not givie the appearance of being entirely depressed about the state of the world, I want to share a thought: Whenever you feel really discouraged about your condition and about your future, keep in mind that humanity continues to move on a path to progress. For example, King Louis IX, an example of extreme gluttony, never had Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, access to flushable toilets, or year-round citrus fruit. We do. Stay courageous.
Nice to meet you, Rodney. I’m Tara, also an academic, up in Idaho now. I spent 2 years in the 90s in Presque Isle and Caribou, and I compliment you on your Aroostook home country. As a Pacific Northwesterner, I appreciated the trees, terrain, and especially moose. I hope you get back there eventually, if that’s a goal.
Oh, my, Rodney ... you made me weep and laugh in one note. Your kind words will rest in my heart for a long time and I'm trying to decide which flavor His Royal Fatness would have chosen should he make a time leap into today's world.
Should we have the pleasure of hanging out anytime soon, I will take it as a personal challenge to lure you into the Substacker world. Perhaps a non-academic outlet would be a good thing ... for you and us both. We need all the passion that can be shared. Many hugs.
Thanks for the comments and support. Life is a juggling act for each one of us - we just keep getting new things thrown into the mix. 3 or 4 per week is a lot to have in the air at once,
I love the quote from Wally Amos - Thanks Joyce. I especially resonate with "the spirit of play and collaboration. he referred to." It's hard to have that spirit while at the same time feeling contempt for the "other." Becoming cynical or discouraged can become almost a default attitude, but a practice of gratitude keeps reminding us each day of what's right in this world.
My blog "Us AND Them," is focused on lessening the divide among our neighbors and beyond - we are indeed way more alike than different - it is truly in our DNA.
Thanks, Mark for sharing. Your post about sustainability really hit the mark for me. I started out thinking I could write 3-4 times per week ... and I could, but at what quality and what price? Glad you decided to balance your life ... we need your writings.
What a fun idea! Thanks for sharing @Martin Prior and his idea from his Substack, Never Stop Learning!
I have a morning "Gratitude" ritual....before I get out of bed. I think of 3 things I'm grateful for. One is something in the world. One is about someone I care about. And the 3rd is about me.
No matter how I feel when I first open my eyes, the 3 Gratitudes start my day with positivity.
I research the scientific benefits of kindness and share them in Kindness Magnet, my free, weekly Substack. As you might imagine, gratitude has a pretty big role in my writing (and my life).
Thank you, Joyce, for the inspiration you have brought into my world. I appreciate you. 💚
Thank you, Heather ... love your 3 gratitude practice. Great way to start the day. And, your Kindness Magnet is always an inspiration. Loved your clarification of Brain Fog this week. Makes me happy to think it's just information overload. ;-)
Hi. I'm Tara. I have 2 kids, a teen and a tween, and 2 cats. By day, I teach American literature or research and write for academic outlets. Substack for me is a place to write shorter pieces than my usual and explore voices and ideas. My newsletter finds enchanting passages from literature and asks how enchantment/art supports the aspiration of "united" states. I'm finding room in this theme to write things that are sometimes more personal or playful also. This has been a great pleasure. I think I owe my gratitude practice to Rodgers & Hammerstein: "Favorite Things" in The Sound of Music. :-) "When the bee stings," etc. has turned out to be scalable to any of life's emergencies. "Favorite things" matured into something like: What's ok/acceptable right now? How might this turn out to be better than it looks? and What is there to be grateful for right now? I'm grateful for the simplicity of Gratitude Mojo, like the ring of a bell, reminding me to check my gratitude thermometer and make sure it's in the healthy range. :-)
Tara ... how lovely to have you here ... you've brought "enchantment" back to my vocabulary. And I love the idea of a gratitude thermometer ... may have to steal that. Thanks for all your wisdom and shedding light on so many things. Substack, for me, is an enchanted place and an opportunity to hear so many new voices.
Hi, I am Jo-Anne, I am 60yrs of age married with 3 grown daughters and 4 grandchildren, I am an early riser. I am grateful that I am part of an amazing family and to feel loved and blessed
Thanks for sharing, Jo-Anne. Sounds like you have created a beautiful family filled with love. Thanks for sharing your blessing with us
Love this idea. My name is Stephanie Jucar Cooley. The first thing I do every day is write what I'm thankful for in my green journal. If I don't do this ritual, my day feels off. Today, I was grateful for a beautiful morning, dogs that are good with my kids even though they drive me crazy, and my bed.
My substack is called Unpacking and I unpack the hard things we deal with adults when it comes to mental health, relationships, career, parenting. https://stephaniecooley.substack.com/
Welcome, Stephanie, and thanks for sharing about your gratitude practice and for helping understand how to deal with the hard things. One of the things I love most about Substack is the generosity of spirit coming from wise people.