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“Every day is new, and every moment is an opportunity to create positive change.”
LaSara Firefox

Update: @thesaleswoman is the winner of Gratitude Games Pro! We’ll be getting in touch with you soon!

LaSara Firefox is the guru of gratitude. Every time I see one of her tweets, I am reminded that not only do I have all that I need, but I have so much more than that. Every community needs a beacon of encouragement and hope, and she is Twitter’s.

I got the opportunity to enjoy LaSara’s Gratitude Games, and I was amazed at how it lifted my mood and got me thinking about all the good things in my life. Yes, I’m sleep deprived, but I love my work. My family is happy and fulfilled. My husband is getting ready to graduate. My web design studio is taking off. Life is good!

I highly suggest the Gratitude Games if you are looking for something simple and fun to do with your family that will get you all to stop thinking about the crappy economy and the supposedly impending doom. And I highly suggest commenting or tweeting about this article, because LaSara is giving one reader a copy for free! You get one entry for every tweet and one entry for commenting.

On gratefulness: An interview with LaSara Firefox

You’ve been featured in national publications for your work. What got you so focused on gratitude?

Well, I started my conscious practice of gratitude as a way to address stress-related health issues, many years ago. It worked well for me, and soon I started seeing other areas that could benefit from an application of applied gratitude!

The biggest part of my practice, aside from lots of little momentary rituals of transformation through gratitude, has been having a gratitude circle stand as grace in our house. When we all sit down to dinner together, we each take a turn sharing what we are grateful for in the moment. Sometimes it’s each of us saying one thing, and sometimes it goes on throughout the whole time we’re eating dinner.

Practicing gratitude with my kids has helped them to see the good in life - even when times are tough. It’s a great coping skill to foster in our kids. Gratitude practice has been proven to increase over-all happiness. There’s nothing bad to say about that! And, I have seen gratitude practice lead to increased confidence, self-esteem, and ability in my kids - gratitude practice fosters a “can do” attitude, for sure.

In my coaching practice, and in workshops I’ve offered, I’ve also given gratitude practice as an action step - that’s coach-speak for “homework” - to thousands of clients over the years. I’ve seen amazing results, from increased social skills and confidence, to better follow-through on goals, to increased commitment to healthier lifestyles.

I was first introduced to the concept of formal gratitude practice when I was studying for my Neuro-Linguistic Programming practitioner certification. NLP is a healing modality that is comprised of a variety of techniques that create rapid and lasting change.

In NLP terms, gratitude helps you to change your expectations in life. What you notice is what you notice, and when on auto-pilot our minds search for confirmation of what we already believe to be true. When we start practicing gratitude, it’s like changing our search parameters.

When we change our expectations, we change how we experience the world.

How did you come up with the idea for Gratitude Games?

I created Gratitude Games originally for my larger family’s Thanksgiving celebration a couple of years ago. And, I sent the games out, in very simple form, in my e-zine. People loved the games, and so did I. So, I kept with it, and made the games more user-friendly, and got my friends at Bubonic Media to make the Gratigories!! cards the works of art that they are.

The games came out of my already established gratitude practice, my training in NLP, and my desire to have a fun and easy way to celebrate gratitude with my extended family and friends.

So far the response has been great; Gratitude Games are being used in grade schools, training programs, and homes across the country. I hope to see the Games on Oprah someday, because I think she’d love them. — And if any of your readers know how to help make that happen, they should let me know!

Image by Eugene Kim

I see #gratitude tweets all over the place. Why do you think it’s caught on so quickly on Twitter?

I think we’re missing a little something having - as a culture - walked away from organized religion. Though many of the things about organized religion were walked away from with good reason, and are just well gone.

The missing part that’s left a whole for many of us though, is the experience of group observation or worship. I think in some ways that #gratitude is a way of having a shared language of worship that is non-denominational, yet gives us that moment of potent and profound reflection, that is intensified through the act of sharing; of witnessing and being witnessed.

Maybe we could call it semi-organized spirituality!?

I’ve come to call my Twitter community, and especially the #gratitude crew, my Sangha. I truly feel that in #gratitude, I’ve found a very lovely spiritual community. I think the popularity of the #gratitude shows that many other twitizens feel the same.

Is there a deep meaning behind the tattoo on your chest? I’ve noticed that your Gratitude Games has a similar emblem on the front. Care to enlighten us on the story behind it?

Yes! It’s a very long story, with many levels. The short of it is this; the tattoo on my chest represents to me the Buddhist concept of the awakened heart, or compassionate heart, and it resounds with the image of the Sacred Heart that graces images of both Jesus and Mary. Jesus’s Sacred Heart is garlanded with thorns, Mary’s with roses. Mine is garlanded with stars.

I got the beginning of it on my 35th birthday, and have added on since. It was part of a self-initiated, yet formal, dedication to a vow I’ve taken. It’s a Buddhist vow, called the Vow of the Bodhisattva.

At the most basic level, that vow has four parts:
The suffering of beings is endless, and I will extinguish it.
The paths to enlightenment are innumerable, and I will walk them all.
The veils of illusions will arise again and again, and I will pierce them.
Enlightenment is not attainable, and I will achieve it.

Each of the four are obviously paradoxical. There are deep keys to liberation contained in the contemplation of the vow, and the practice of it. The vow is about doing work of enlightenment, for the benefit and liberation of all beings. And, most importantly, about forgoing the surrender into bliss until all beings are liberated. For me, it’s the only path that truly opens to my own liberation.

My Sacred Heart is the best dedication piece I could have given myself. Every time I see it, and when others notice it, it’s an instant reminder to engender the attitudes of enlightenment.

Image by SeenyaRita