🌼 Gratitude in April: BONUS DAY! & an extra pep talk.
Thankful for the glow of accomplishment!
I've had a daily gratitude practice for 5+ years now. "Practice" being the operative word here — I do still have days where I struggle to find even 1 positive thing to write down, let alone 3. And I definitely don't always remember to write thankful things down each day.
Yet even with my imperfect attempts to actively practice gratitude, I've found that my brain is now willing to scan the horizon for the good things just as compulsively as scanning for the potential disasters. Practicing gratitude has made me more willing to accept that happiness does (and will!) always come back around.
Gratitude paves the way to acceptance — to loving what is. Finding the joy in our less-than-perfect reality instead of convincing ourselves that happiness only exists if we meet certain prerequisites.
After more than a decade of stepparenting, I believe that's what finding happiness within our blended families comes down to: acceptance.
Accepting that this is the family we have. That stepfamily life is messy. And also, that that messiness can be its own kind of awesome.
But reaching that place of acceptance... well, that's tough. It took me a ton of time and research and support and deep internal work. And it'll probably take you a bunch of work too.
So in the interest of shortening your learning curve and getting you the help you need faster, please enjoy a 30 day free trial in Substack on us.
On your free trial, you can join our troll-free private chatroom (OFF social media!) where you can get support from other stepparents. You’ll also get full access to all our workshops, ebooks, and other resources. After your free trial, a paid subscription is only $8/month or $80/year.
There’s no expiration date on this, so if now’s not the right time, you can bookmark this and circle back later. Consider this my personal thank-you for letting me share your time and your inbox for the past 30 days. 🧡
I hope this challenge has been helpful, and I hope you keep practicing gratitude on your own even without my daily prompts.
We’ll go back to our regularly scheduled weekly post/emails now, so I’ll meet you right back here on Sunday. Thanks for being here! xo