Well, hello there my friends and welcome back. My name is Stephanie Safarian and you're listening to episode

418 of sustainable minimalist. This is a show about intentional and eco-friendly minimalist living.

I have a down and dirty intentional living show for you today.

And that's because on today's show we're discussing the why and how of gratitude.

Why we need to make grateful living more than just another

thing to check off on our to-do list and how exactly to do it. Often when we think about having a quote unquote gratitude practice,

we tend to list off three things we're grateful for, right? And these three things are often external items. Perhaps they're people,

we are happy that are in our life. Perhaps they're items like a home or warm coffee.

But the point is that the people, the things that we list off in our

gratitude practice, they're external items. And so maybe, just maybe, our culture has

bastardized gratitude so to speak corrupted it maybe because even when

we're practicing gratitude so many of us are looking for someone or something outside of

our selves to be grateful for. Now we are merely a week away from

Thanksgiving here in the United States and yet.

How many of us are looking forward to those Black Friday sales?

How many of us are making our holiday wish lists? How many of us are knee deep in the

holiday grind in which we're going going going without ever stopping and awakening to the miracle, yes, the miracle of opening our eyes each morning.

My guest today argues that we need to simplify the concept of the gratitude practice.

Today I'm speaking with Christie Nelson.

Christie has a book out right now.

It is perfect for the season and it is titled, Wake Up Grateful, the practice of taking nothing

for granted.

...