M. J. Ryan - Attitudes of Gratitude: How to Give and Receive Joy Every Day of Your Life

Praise for Attitudes of Gratitude

We have spent the last decades trying to have what we want. This inspiring book shows us how to rejoice in what we have. Ryan proves that, no matter how worried we are about the future, feeling and expressing gratitude allows us to celebrate and deeply appreciate the privilege of being in the precious present. Ryan graciously shows that if we're going to have an attitude, gratitude is the right one.

PAUL PEARSALL, PH.D.
author of The Pleasure Prescription and The Heart's Code

There is a powerful connection between being grateful, appreciating the gift of living well, and happiness. M. J. Ryan's Attitudes of Gratitude reminds us that gratitude is an achievement and creates lasting happiness when we commit ourselves to this illuminated state of desiremind and passionate spirit-energy to live the best life possible.

ALEXANDRA STODDARD
author of Things Good Mothers Know and Choosing Happiness

Exquisitely reconnects us to the wonder and satisfaction that can be found in our daily lives.

JUDY FORD
author of Wonderful Ways to Be a Family

Attitudes of Gratitude is a most delightful feast of spiritual insights. The quotes at the beginning of each section are outstanding. The personal vignettes are deep yet written simply with the flow of love in each line. It is a book to be savored.

GERALD G. JAMPOLSKY, M.D.
author of Love Is Letting Go of Fear

Each section of Attitudes of Gratitude acts as a mini refresher course in the wisdom of focusing on what is really important.

SUE PATTON THOELE
author of The Courage to Be Yourself and Heart Centered Marriage

What M. J. Ryan has done for the worldand it's no small giftis to forever connect gratitude with joy.

DAVID KUNDTZ
author of Quiet Mind and Awakened Mind

The practice of gratitude is perhaps the most underutilized way to grow spiritually. It is also the fastest way to connect with the joy of being alive. M. J. Ryan provides the inspiration, tools, and heartfelt stories to help anyone make gratitude a wonderful part of their daily life. Honesty and practical wisdom shine throughout the pages of this important book.

JONATHAN ROBINSON
Communication Miracles for Couples and Shortcuts to Bliss

For me, this book could not have come at a better time. I have been working on bringing the ancient practice of gratitude to life in my life and finding that making a list just wasn't enough. Here are hundreds of ways to soften and loosen, to celebrate and pause. Thank you, M. J. Ryan.

JENNIFER LOUDEN
author of The Woman's Comfort Book and The Woman's Retreat Book

Thanksgiving is one of the most exciting and powerful antidotes to moral apathy and spiritual indifference available to human beings. The stories in this book testify to this wonderful value that all of us can practiceno matter our social, economic, cultural, or religious background. Gratitude is ours for the taking, but not to be taken for granted!

ELIZABETH ESPERSEN
executive director, Center for World Thanksgiving

M. J. Ryan understands the human heart and how to release its power. Attitudes of Gratitude is a deeply touching and truly transforming guide for life.

HUGH PRATHER
author of Notes to Myself and The Little Book of Letting Go

This edition first published in 2017 by Conari Press, an imprint of

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

65 Parker Street, Suite 7

Newburyport, MA 01950

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2017 by M. J. Ryan

Foreword copyright 2017 by Mark Nepo

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages. Previously published in 2009 by Conari Press, ISBN: 978-1-57324-411-4.

ISBN: 978-1-57324-710-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request

Cover design by Jim Warner

Cover photograph Forget Me Not, Campbell, Rebecca / Private

Collection / Bridgeman Images

Interior by Deborah Dutton

Typeset in Adobe Garamond Pro and Mrs Eaves

Printed in Canada

MAR

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy.

MILTON ERICKSON, M.D.

CHAPTER 1
The Simple Joy of Living from a Grateful Heart

CHAPTER 2
The Gifts of Gratitude

CHAPTER 3
The Attitudes of Gratitude

CHAPTER 4
The Practices of Gratitude

CHAPTER 5
The Deepening Journey

Mary Jane Ryan is a kind and wise soul. As the founder of Conari Press and the author of thirteen books, she is a tireless warrior of the heart, steadfast in reminding us that kindness, patience, trust, and adaptability are always close at hand. In Attitudes of Gratitude, first published in 1999, Mary Jane has created a foundational resource on what gratitude looks like and how it works to keep us resilient. The stories in this book reveal the nature of gratitude, and Mary Jane's insights show us how to begin a practice of gratitude in a way that will bolster our daily lives.

Best of all, Mary Jane embodies these qualities. I know firsthand. In 1997, while she was no doubt creating this book, I was beginning a spiritual daybook, exploring the idea of writing small doses of what matters in a form that might be hands-on and useful. A mutual friend introduced my work to Mary Jane. I sent along a complete manuscript of another book I was just finishing. Almost as an afterthought, I included five draft entries of the daybook I was imagining, the only drafts I had. I was surprised when Mary Jane contacted me, almost immediately, wanting to publish the daybookbased only on the five entries! She was full of vision and belief in what this book might become. She offered her commitment with such gratitude, that her welcome was a kind instruction that gave me confidence. Three years later, I finished the daybook, which Conari published as The Book of Awakening.

I've never forgotten Mary Jane's belief and support, and her gratitude for being able to water the seed that was The Book of Awakening. In this story lives the secret of gratitude, which Mary Jane unfolds throughout Attitudes of Gratitude. That secret is that being grateful for being able to water seeds changes our life. There are many ways to inhabit this ordinary miracle, which this book explores. At the heart of gratitude is giving and receiving, the inhaling and exhaling of relationship that keeps us alive. Devoting ourselves to the practice of giving and receiving is what keeps humanity going.