gratitude practice

Why 52 Weeks of Wisdom & Wellness Makes the Perfect Holiday Gift

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Finding the right gift isn’t always easy. The best gifts are those that stay with us — the ones that remind us to slow down, breathe, and appreciate life.

That’s exactly what 52 Weeks of Wisdom & Wellness: A Year of Mindful Living was created to do. This book offers more than words on a page. It’s a gentle guide for anyone seeking to live with more awareness, gratitude, and balance.

A Gift That Keeps Giving

Each week brings a short reflection, a mindful practice, and an affirmation. These simple moments of awareness encourage readers to pause and reconnect. The practices are inspired by the changing seasons and the wisdom of nature.

In spring, you’ll be invited to explore new beginnings.
In summer, you’ll find joy and expansion.
In fall, you’ll reflect on letting go and change.
In winter, you’ll rest and return inward.

Through these themes, 52 Weeks of Wisdom & Wellness helps you stay grounded in life’s natural rhythms.

Simple Practices for Everyday Mindfulness

You don’t need much time or space to begin. The book offers easy practices like mindfulness practices, wekly affirmations, and relfections. Each one helps you notice beauty in everyday life and cultivate presence with ease.

These practices are not about doing more. They are about being more — more aware, more open, and more connected.

A Meaningful Gift for Any Season

This book makes a heartfelt gift for:

  • Yoga and mindfulness lovers
  • Caregivers and healers
  • Friends seeking calm or clarity
  • Anyone ready to begin a mindful journey

It’s also a wonderful gift for yourself — a reminder to take time for what truly matters.

Give the Gift of Mindfulness

52 Weeks of Wisdom & Wellness is a year-long invitation to live with intention, gratitude, and joy. As each week unfolds, readers discover simple ways to feel more balanced and inspired.

This holiday season, share a gift that lasts. Give someone you love the opportunity to find stillness, connection, and meaning through mindful living.

Find 52 Weeks of Wisdom & Wellness: A Year of Mindful Living here.

A year of wisdom begins with one small act of mindfulness — perhaps this book is that beginning.

Want to explore more mindfulness practices? Visit the Yoga and Wellness section of my blog for simple, seasonal ways to nurture your spirit. Would you like to add my top selling Gratitude Blend to your gift giving? Here it is!

Gratitude Essential Oil Blend and Ritual | A Heart-Opening Practice for November

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Gratitude Essential Oil Blend and Ritual

As the season shifts and November invites us inward, we are reminded of the quiet beauty in gratitude — not as a fleeting thought, but as a feeling that roots deep in the heart. This gratitude essential oil blend and ritual is designed to nurture that feeling, helping you connect to appreciation through scent, breath, and mindful reflection.

The Gratitude Essential Oil Blend

Each oil in this blend carries a distinct emotional resonance, working together to open the heart, ground the body, and awaken joy.

You’ll Need:

  • 3 drops Wild Orange — Brings joy, abundance, and creativity. Wild Orange uplifts the spirit and reminds us that life’s sweetness is found in the present moment.
  • 2 drops Lavender — Offers emotional balance and calm. Lavender soothes the heart, eases tension, and helps release resistance to peace and gratitude.
  • 2 drops Patchouli — Deeply grounding and stabilizing. Patchouli connects us to our body, helping us feel centered and safe enough to open to appreciation.
  • 1 drop Roman Chamomile — Encourages compassion and acceptance. This gentle oil supports emotional release and nurtures inner harmony.
  • Optional: 1 drop Frankincense — Enhances spiritual awareness and inner stillness. Frankincense deepens the connection to gratitude by bringing clarity and sacredness to your practice.

Combine oils in a 10 ml roller bottle and top with fractionated coconut oil (or your preferred carrier oil). Gently roll between your palms to blend.

How to Use Your Gratitude Blend

Apply over your heart, wrists, or temples. Close your eyes and take three slow, intentional breaths. Allow the scent to settle — notice how it shifts your energy, softens your thoughts, and opens you to a quieter sense of thankfulness.

The Gratitude Ritual

  1. Find a comfortable place where you won’t be interrupted.
  2. Roll the blend over your heart space and breathe deeply.
  3. Reflect on three things you are grateful for — one that brings you comfort, one that inspires you, and one that challenges you but helps you grow.
  4. Sit quietly for a few moments, letting gratitude expand through your body.
  5. End with a gentle affirmation, such as “My heart is open to the blessings that surround me.”

You may wish to journal, meditate, or simply rest in the feeling of appreciation that lingers.

Why This Practice Works

Aromatherapy engages the limbic system — the part of the brain that connects scent, memory, and emotion. When paired with mindful awareness, essential oils help anchor gratitude in both body and spirit. Over time, this practice can reframe the mind toward joy and cultivate a more peaceful, appreciative heart.

Suggested Oil Substitutions

Don’t have all the oils on hand? You can still create a powerful blend with similar emotional benefits. Try one of these easy swaps:

  • Wild Orange: Substitute with Bergamot or Tangerine for uplifting energy and emotional brightness.
  • Lavender: Swap for Clary Sage or Geranium to promote calm, balance, and self-compassion.
  • Patchouli: Try Cedarwood or Vetiver for grounding and emotional stability.
  • Roman Chamomile: Use Ylang Ylang or Magnolia for soothing comfort and heart-centered energy.
  • Frankincense: Substitute with Sandalwood or Myrrh for spiritual connection and reflection.

These alternatives will still encourage presence, gratitude, and peace — allowing you to personalize the blend based on what you already love or have available.

A Note of Reflection

Gratitude often lives in the subtle spaces — in the light on your morning coffee, the rhythm of your breath, or the warmth of someone’s kindness. This simple ritual is a way to pause and honor those quiet blessings, allowing your heart to soften and your spirit to expand.

Gratitude = Joy

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It’s not joy that makes us grateful, it’s gratitude that makes us joyful.

Brené Brown

Think about that. So often we misunderstand that if we had all the things and our life is packed with goodness, we would then be grateful.

Actually it is not that way.

I have read and even taken a course with Brené Brown and yet I still continue to learn and soak in more every time I hear her speak.

Last night I was watching a talk she gave to teachers and other leaders. She was describing what happens when we think that we cannot be happy with what we have and we are constantly seeking joy through external things. We have all heard “when I take that vacation” or “if I could have that ____”, then my life would be good. This is called scarcity thinking. Scarcity thinking is when we think what we have is not enough or what we have will be taken from us.

Huh.

Years ago I had that mindset. Thankfully through the work I’ve done I no longer have that reaching for something. If a moment sneaks up on me and I do start to feel that what I have isn’t enough, I just have to go to my office and grab one of EIGHTEEN years worth of gratitude journals to see that my life is really quite full.

For some a gratitude journal feels daunting. That’s okay.

There are countless ways to cultivate a genuine gratitude practice. Here are some great ideas:

  • pause before eating to recognize all that took place to bring you that plate of food
  • step outside and look at the sky and just breathe for two to three minutes
  • look at a stranger through the eyes of peace
  • say thank you throughout the day as doors get opened, people say hello, words are exchanged
  • smile more
  • before you begin your busy day sit for five minutes and gaze around your space and not see the tasks undone, but see instead your roof, your furniture, your safety
  • exchange gratitudes of the day with your family or friends before eating

Research shows that with a genuine gratitude practice, we can shift from scarcity thinking to joy. Imagine your life shifting from disappointment to deep appreciation. Think about how your relationships and business could flourish with an attitude of enough.

More than enough.

Follow me for more goodness!

A Gratitude Practice

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“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melodie Beattie

This is a special time of year when we find ourselves being more thankful and appreciative. I love to see the focus of many people shift from the outward struggles that the collective world is feeling to a focus on abundance. If only we could all stay focused on the good in our lives rather than the nonsense that floods and feeds the division in our world.

Gratitude Practice

I believe that a deliberate practice of gratitude can truly change your life. Many years ago I began a daily gratitude journal and after a short time I realized that throughout my day I was looking for things to be able to write down in my journal. What a life-changer to be on the look-out for what is good versus what is lack. Now after 18 years of a daily gratitude practice, if I find that in times of fear or sadness, I can open up any of one of those journals and be reminded of all that I really do have in my life.

I encourage you to spend some time each day acknowledging a few things in your life that you can be grateful for, including yourself! If you are not sure what to be grateful for beyond the obvious, then I say use your senses! What did you smell today? Did you feel something amazing today? Describe something that you tasted today that was amazing? To deepen your practice, you can include why you are grateful. I love to acknowledge that I am grateful for my friends because they help me to feel connected.

How to have a gratitude practice

When we think of abundance we often think of the tangible, material, often obvious things in our life to be grateful for; house, food, car, employment, etc. I would like to offer up acknowledging the abundance of less visible things; the love you feel for someone, the colors that surround your life, the sounds of music and laughter, the aroma that fills your home from a hearty soup, or the growth that you have shown this year.

Soak in all that is untouchable. Fill your heart with the fullness of simply being alive and experiencing the sensations each day offers.