Raising the Faith Index – Gratitude Journal

Today I was chatting with Lisa Kane (MTL Coach in Cape Town, S.Africa) about raising the bar on the Faith Index.  Our conversation (always so rich) centered around the expression of Gratitude. They seem to be linked, Faith and Gratitude … probably siblings, maybe twins.

When I am very grateful, I have a lot of faith. When my faith is low and fear is high, I'm not grateful for much, if anything. In fact, usually I'm wishing everything was different. When Rebecca was having her hand operated on for a sprung tendon, the operation was supposed to take 45 minutes. At 1.5 hours, I had imagined all kinds of terrible things. On the surface, I was mad about everything – the volleyball that hit her hand, the doctors, the hospital, the vending machine, whatever. Underneath, I was scared, not a shred of faith in sight, and certainly not grateful for ANYthing. I even called Brad Brown, my mentor, and told him that the processes of the More To Life program didn't work. I didn't mention that I hadn't worked the processes, but I suspect he figured that out.

In another one of my low times, I reached for a new processing book – it was a pretty one with silver designs. I decided I was tired of my mini-depression and started writing about lifeshocks I had that day (lifeshocks = events that happened). This time, I wrote about what I was grateful for regarding each lifeshock. I did that for 5 different lifeshocks – little ones that I hadn't noticed at the time: laughter during an impromptu conversation with my neighbors, the sight of my newly mown lawn, etc. 

Then I also wrote down 5 different qualities I exhibited that day for which I was grateful: my innate openness, my honesty, etc.  My reactive mind cautioned me not to own those qualities, because, "Sure as shootin', you'll get a big head. Then it'll all be downhill from there."  On the contrary, owning my innate qualities actually was humbling, compelling me to take responsibility for the best in me.

Cheap, effective way to raise my Faith Index: writing in my Gratitude Journal daily:

5 lifeshocks for which I'm grateful (even if I wasn't at the time), and

5 qualities of 'being' which expressed the best in me that day.