Gratitude and mindfulness

Multiple streams of thank you

It's that time of year where I get all curious and encouragable about gratitude some of you may know that myself and JulieAnn Turner run an OPEN GLOBAL positive living and creative project called THE GLOBAL GRATITUDE POSTCARD PROJECT. GGPP as we shorten it to, is about getting people connected to thankfulness, accessing their creativity and participating in making an open expression of thanks to another person and sharing that within the GGPP community on the ConciousShift site.
I love working with Julie Ann on this project which is now moving into it's third year we are hoping you will love the project too and join in.
You can listen to the project kick off interview on ConsciousSHIFT radio podcast in itunes here. In the interview you will hear me talk about

• the concept and ideology behind the  project, 
• why gratitude is important and its links to some of my other work, 
• a short meditation in the second half about getting heart centred and soul connected for the activity 
• the tractor mindfulness story that will bring a smile to your face. 

Lets be clear being thankful, grateful, mindful and acknowledging people is not just for a particular time of year. I think it is something we should all invest in daily in our professional and personal lives. But once a year this project draws attention to the practice of thankfulness and acknowledging people. Once a year we run this project to encourage everyone to focus on it and perhaps this is the year you will find a way to share your own thankfulness to someone through the global gratitude postcard project #GGPP.

When was the last time you got a thank you message? 
When was the last time you wrote or crafted one?
So take note this is a project for you and the people around you and your life. Do it, share it, enjoy it.
The basis for the project is choose one person in your life to whom you are grateful towards, get a blank postcard and make or craft a postcard plus send it to the person. We'd ask that you also share it
on the http://consciousshift.posterous.com site. The reason we want you to share it online means you are acknowledging that thankfulness, gratitude and mindfulness are important pieces for you in your life plus sharing the images publicly gives you accountability within a like mind community, extends the vibration of gratitude in the world and encourages others to join in. It is very easy to share a photograph or scanned image of your made postcard you just email it to the site. All the instructions are on the site including these easy to follow visual and written ones that you can printed out:

This morning I am thinking about how I can bring this idea to groups in Ireland and further the project globally... hey we could even organise a #GGPP tweet up or Skype creativity session. Who's on for that?
It would make a great exercise for a family, group of friends, network and I think it would make a great team building exercise.
This project has been designed to be easy and accessible all you have to do is create the postcard with intent. No stress on the image on the front of the postcard it is just away to add another layer of creativity and mindfulness. But choose, make, post and share #GGPP2011.
If you'd like more information on the how contact me or to join in - check out the GGPP project site.

Background:
My 2010 blog on the GGPP project is here. The original concept for the project was inspired by a Wexford based project I devised and ran in 2009 on creativity for boosting morale and self esteem which you can read about here. This created a ripple across my community at the time and connected me to some great people including Julie Ann.
Other projects that you might be interested in where I've used gratitude, mindfulness and access to arts have mingled and featured to connect others to their creativity:
Cultivating and Growing Happiness Seminar,Wexford 2011. Part two happiness grows on trees.
Earth and Soul Exhibition and workshops. Wexford 2010
Employee satisfaction, happiness quotient and work life balance Corporate event and research. Dublin 2010
Crash the artistic scene with Women in Business and entrepreneur's down time. Wexford 2009