25-046 Practice Gratitude

The Mandala Lady, , , , , , , ,
MotD 25-046 Practice Gratitude — after. Painted front view of Puzzle Piece No. 61. with colors of warm browns, orange, green, and yellows

Practice Gratitude

We continue this week focused on practicing an attitude of gratitude. Today we’re encouraged to actually practice gratitude. Chances are we’re proficient in practicing misery, or complaining, or negativity. So now we’re going to turn the tables and practice gratitude—especially for the things we complain about. We’re going to turn “thank you” into a meditative chant for everything.

We know how to say “thank you” for the positive things around us, now (even if we have to fake it) say “thank you” to everything we don’t like. As an experiment, Melody recommends doing this 5x a day for a month.

Here are just a few of mine:

  • Thank you for this cold, rainy day.
  • Thank you for my old kitchen
  • Thank you for the clutter in our garage
  • Thank you for the weeds in our garden
  • Thank you for the 30+ extra pounds I’m carrying around
  • Thank you for the all the books I have yet to read
  • Thank you for all the online classes I have yet to finish
  • Thank you for all the unopened emails in my inbox
  • Thank you for the smell of broccoli cooking
  • Thank you for the pile of laundry waiting to be washed
  • and so on

Melody states that “we don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are. When we’re restless, irritable, and discontented, everything looks bad. That’s because we’re practicing negativity. It’s a powerful form of magic, only the magic it works is dark.”

Practicing gratitude, regularly, shifts our circumstances over time. Try it. You might like it.

How about you? What do you regularly complain about that you can switch up and say “thank you” to?

BTW…Here’s the before…the front and back view of today’s puzzle piece and the pretty ceramic box that holds all my numbers from which I randomly choose each day’s puzzle piece number:

MotD 25-046 Practice Gratitude — before. Front view of Puzzle Piece No. 61
MotD 25-046 Practice Gratitude — before. Back view of Puzzle Piece No. 61

Peace & Blessings,

Maureen
The Mandala Lady

Creating Mandalas 🔆 Awakening Inner Harmony

ABOUT THE 2025 Mandalas of the Day

Throughout the year, I’ll be building one large (48”x48”) Tibetan-styled Mandala one piece at a time…one puzzle piece at a time, that is. The mandala design and the reversed puzzle side were printed on artist-quality watercolor paper. The forward facing puzzle side was printed on a 48”x48” wood panel.

Each day, at random, I’ll be painting in watercolors one of the 365 watercolor puzzle pieces, that by the end of the year will become Archangel Mandala #4. Read more about the Archangel Series. The word/message for each piece will be inspired by Melody Beattie’s book “52 Weeks of Conscious Contact”.

Ultimately, the message of this mandala is about how we are all uniquely part of the one.

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Published by The Mandala Lady

My Mission: connecting with our Inner Light in delightful, inspiring ways For me, creating mandalas is more than just coloring pretty patterns in a circle. I do it because my spiritual evolution and creativity require it of me. My mandala designs come about within an active meditative state, connected with my higher self, my spiritual guides and nature spirits. Together, we bring into form, mandala art the allows me to re-connect with my own inner peace and joy, letting me explore and expand my own creative spirit to however far and in whatever direction I want to take it. As part of my own spiritual journey, I encourage, and hopefully inspire, others to explore their own creativity, to help them re-connect with their own inner peace and joy. As a means to that end, I make all of my mandalas available for people to color. Why should I have all the fun?

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