Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers, happy belated Thanksgiving to the Canadians, and happy Random Gratitude Day to all others around the globe!

This quote from the Dalai Lama is one of my all-time favorites — for two years I had it printed on a piece of paper and taped to my bathroom mirror:

Everyday, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.

—Dalai Lama

After every yoga practice when I bow forward in namaste, I give thanks. I pause while my hands are touching my forehead and the ground in prayer-position (bowing forward over crossed-legs) and take a few minutes to cycle through everything I am grateful for.

Today I’d like to share some of the thoughts that come up most frequently:

• I am grateful for my body, my practice and my health.
• I am grateful to have all of my basic needs met so that I can focus on doing work that inspires me and others.
• I am grateful for my wonderful family; for how much they teach, inspire and support me. For their health and happiness.
• I am grateful for my friends and for this incredible community.
• I am grateful — so grateful — to be working for myself because of all of you and now to be living in New York City.
• I am grateful to be giving myself the space to stumble, fall, get back up and keep climbing up the steep learning curve of this phase of my life.
• I am grateful for my yoga teachers who create such an amazing space for me to relax, release, transform, and fly.

A giveaway to express my gratitude for YOU

Is this an awesome Thanksgiving cupcake or what?!

Hopefully you all know by now how much I love you. If you forgot, read this post from the day I sent my book off to press.

After almost four years of blogging, you have been my rock. You have been the constant in my life, and the very source of my freedom.

I feel humbly indebted to this blog and to all of you for helping me reach my lifelong dream of being an author/speaker/coach/yoga teacher/entrepreneur extraordinairre.

Thank you for being so wonderful, compassionate, positive and loyal.

As a small token of my appreciation, I am giving away ten $10 iTunes e-certificates (courtesy of JBE!).

Music makes my life go ’round (I’ve made a seasonal playlist every quarter for the last 10 years), and I’d love to help you refresh your collection — whether it’s for running, car blasting, working, or dancing around the house in your underwear to Mariah Carey’s version of All I Want for Christmas is You.

To enter, leave a comment stating something small or unexpected you are grateful for
(ie you get a free pass on saying health, friends or family

***

Since I realize you may be in a tryptophan hangover and/or spending precious time with friends and family instead of commenting on blogs, the deadline to enter will be Wednesday, November 30. In the meantime: go grab a water bottle or hairbrush, turn it into a microphone, jump on the bed and blast the following video while singing at the top of your lungs:

Thank you for all of your kind comments, thoughts and outreach on Saturday’s Human Magic post. Feeling much better already!

That post helped me articulate a much-needed reminder that with big GIANT goals come big giant roller-coasters of emotion — dips and triumphs, highs and lows. So it feels like perfect timing to introduce you to one of my favorite pieces of writing about living life to the fullest. I humbly turn the floor over to writer and philosopher Joseph Campbell (bold emphasis below is mine); I find this essay incredibly moving and inspirational, and I know you will too.

The Hero’s Journey (On Living in the World) by Joseph Campbell

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.
What you have to do, you do with play.
Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it.
The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be.

Being alive is the meaning.

The warrior’s approach is to say “yes” to life: “Yea” to it all.

Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world.
We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.
When we talk about settling the world’s problems, We’re barking up the wrong tree.
The world is perfect. It’s a mess. It has always been a mess.

We are not going to change it.
Our job is to straighten out our own lives.
We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.

If we fix on the old, we get stuck. when we hang onto any form, we are in danger of putrefaction.
Hell is life drying up. The Hoarder, the one in us that wants to keep, to hold on, must be killed.
If we are hanging onto the form now, we’re not going to have the form next.
You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.

Destruction before creation.

Out of perfection nothing can be made. Every process involves breaking something up. The earth must be broken to bring forth new life. If the seed does not die, there is no plant.
Bread results from the death of wheat. Life lives on lives. Our own life lives on the acts of other people.
If you are lifeworthy, you can take it. What we are really living for is the experience of life, both the pain and the pleasure.
The world is a match for us. We are a match for the world. Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging. Negativism to the pain and ferocity of life is negativism to life.

We are not there until we can say “Yea” to it all.

To take a righteous attitude toward anything is to denigrate it. Awe is what moves us forward. As you proceed through life, following your own path, birds will shit on you. don’t bother to brush it off. Getting a comedic view of your situation gives you spiritual distance. Having a sense of humor saves you. Eternity is a dimension of here and now.

The divine lives within you. Live from your own center.

Your real duty is to go away from the community to find your bliss. The society is the enemy when it imposes its structures on the individual.
On the dragon there are many scales. Every one of them says “Thou Shalt.” Kill the dragon “Thou Shalt.” When one has killed that dragon, one has become The Child.
Breaking out is following your bliss pattern, quitting the old place, starting your hero journey, following your bliss. You throw off yesterday as the snake sheds its skin.

Follow your bliss.

If I ever do learn to cook (one day mom, I promise!), I'm starting with this thing.

It’s time for another Crock-Pot post (yes, I just made that up): sometimes I get hit with so many unrelated miscellaneous links, articles, and cool things to share that I decide to throw it all into a big stew and serve it up. Bon appetite!

Happy Thoughts – Delivered Daily

I’m a sucker for daily inspirational emails, quotes or thoughts. Three lists I’ve been enjoying lately:

• The Daily Love – “Wisdom with Style” (Quotes on love and happiness)
• Positive Quote of the Day (Short, simple email with a great thought to start each day)
• TUT – Notes from the Universe (funny, wise and widely-known list)

I particularly appreciated today’s TUT Note (thank you Ruth Ann for sharing it!):

“Of all the things that matter, Jenny, that really and truly matter, working more efficiently and getting more done, is not among them.

Chill,
The Universe

And, quite accidentally, Jenny, such an appreciation leads to greater efficiency and more productivity. Not that that really matters.”

Other great stuff around the web:

• Colin Wright’s eBook, How to be Remarkable (the Least You Need to Know). Incredibly well done with powerful advice – a must-read!
• Matt Cheuvront‘s Epiphany Moment video series (featuring yours truly)
• The full round-up of posts for Elisa Doucette’s February “All You Need is Love” series
• The reader comments on my Help a Reader Out: How Do You Make Decisions post: TONS of fantastic, insightful tips.
• My Dad’s Blog! I couldn’t be prouder. My dad and I take walks every Sunday and talk about life – I’m so excited that he’s now sharing all of his great stories, theories and art with the rest of the world!
• I signed-up for Formspring – ask me anything and I’ll answer (but keep it friendly and SFW, people!)
• There are lots more articles I find interesting (on writing, psychology, happiness, humor and more) on Delicious

My Policy on Book Reviews – and Live a Life You Love: Book Giveaway Winner

I’ve implemented a new policy on this blog for book reviews (on books that others send to me, not ones I choose myself). In the name of transparency, I’m sharing it with all of you:

1. I will only review books if I get two copies – one for me and one to give away to my readers; It’s no fun if I’m the only one getting a free book!
2. I will only agree to someone sending me a book in the first place if I find the description captivating. The book should meet at least one of the following criteria: useful/beneficial to me and my readers, related to topics I blog about, or fun/unique in some way.
3. I reserve the right to decide whether to write a blog post on the book until after reading it (at which point I can discern whether a majority of my readers will learn or benefit in some way).
4. Am I missing anything?

With that, I’m excited to announce that Clara is the winner of the Live a Life You Love book giveaway. Congrats, and thanks so much to everyone who commented to enter!

OK Go’s AWESOME New Music Video – This Too Shall Pass

I leave you with one final pick-me-up: OK Go’s new music video – it’s colorful, playful, creative, and just pure genius. (Plus – the contraptions remind me of the booby traps from The Goonies, one of my all time favorite movies.) Enjoy!

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

Photo Courtesy of Andreas (Flickr)

I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration; I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.

In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized.

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I am fascinated by human potential. I absolutely believe that if we see the best in others, we bring out the best in others – and in ourselves.

How great does it feel when someone believes in you – and genuinely means it – even after barely meeting you? While there are exceptions (I don’t advocate blind trust, for example) – seeing the good in someone can be one of the most powerful gifts in the world. Give it freely.

The Master of Living

The master in the art of living
draws no sharp distinction between
his work and his play,
his labor and his leisure,
his mind and his body,
his information and his recreation,
his love and his religion.
He hardly knows which is which.

He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does,
leaving others to determine whether he is working or playing.
To him, he is always doing both.

—James A. Michener

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”

—Martha Graham, quoted by Agnes DeMille in Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham

Photo Courtesy of Jean-Francois Chenier (Flickr)