The Healing Gift of Gratitude: Live a Happier, More Peaceful Life with a Unique Practice of Gratitude

By Shannon Elhart

If you want to be happier, have inner peace, learn new ways to be grateful, and let go of the past - youve found it all in one place!

The Healing Gift of Gratitude helps you thank outside the box as you find common, and not-so-common, ways to appreciate yourself, others, and the world around you. In 52 weeks youll find happiness, hope, and healing through its light-hearted, hope-filled messages and inspired journaling.

When you begin, you might feel unhappy, stuck or like somethings missing in your life, but within weeks youll be encouraged and convinced of the power of gratitude. By the end of the year, youll be transformed with a new way of experiencing life.

The Healing Gift of Gratitude can help you begin to heal pain from your life, leave the past behind you, and create a happier future - all through the power of gratitude.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Dec 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504368995

Shannon Elhart

Shannon Elhart inspires you to find gratitude in new, surprising ways. Everyone can relate to at least one of Shannon’s struggles in life, but what will surprise you is how she transforms pain to healing through finding gratitude, hope, and a fresh outlook. She’s experienced the deep grief of her baby’s death, addiction to alcohol, rape, divorce, financial stress as a single mom, and a lifelong belief of unworthiness. Gratitude played a big role in Shannon healing the pain from her past - moving from depression and inauthentic living, to a life of happiness, inner peace, and purpose. Shannon created The Healing Journey a program that helps people around the world heal pain from their past so they can be happier in their future. In this virtual program she coaches and guides people in exploring their pain to find acceptance and forgiveness. Shannon has a Masters degree in counseling, is a certified life coach, author, speaker, Reiki Master, and intuitive specializing in the Akashic Records. www.shannonelhart.com

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Copyright © 2017 Shannon Elhart.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-6873-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-6874-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-6899-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016917994

Balboa Press rev. date: 12/16/2016

With Special Gratitude

Thank you to my parents, Ray and Vonnie Elhart, for loving and encouraging me through so many ups and downs. Your unending belief in me has helped me soar. I love you both dearly.

Thank you, Rayetta Perez and Stephanie Elhart, for your sisterhood and friendship. Without you both I wouldn’t be where I am today, nor would this book. I love and appreciate you very much.

Missy Groothuis, you’re an amazing friend who’s cheered for me all along this journey. Thank you for listening and supporting my life and work. You are a gift in my life.

Sydra and Mack, you two hold the biggest parts of my heart. My gratitude for being your mom is so deep that I can hardly put it to words. I love you both more today than yesterday - and that will be true for each day that comes.

Introduction and How to use this book

Gratitude is the memory of the heart.

~ Jean Baptiste Massieu

Many authors explain that their books were labors of love. The Healing Gift of Gratitude is the result of my Labor of Desperation.

In one decade I experienced: my baby’s death after a terminal pregnancy, facing my addiction to alcohol head on, divorce (and about every sour result from that), moving to a new home, single mom adjustments, painfully deep loneliness, healing from rape (twenty years after it occurred), a loved one’s swift decline into dementia, unemployment and the desire to create my dream business (without any business education or experience), financial uncertainty (to put it lightly), and a search to end a lifelong struggle with a lack of self-worth.

I was often desperate to find inner peace, hope, and happiness. I wanted to heal the pain from my past so I could step more fully into my life.

There were occasions when I raised my fists in frustration and asked "Why me? Why so much pain and struggle?"

But even when those questions popped up during moments of self pity or anger, there was a significantly louder voice saying, "Look deeper. Look within. Things will get better."

Sometimes the voice would elaborate, "Shannon, when you can pull your perspective out of fear, you’ll see a bigger picture. You can find a purpose, even a gift. Allow your life to unfold without trying to control everything. Sometimes it was very brief, Trust."

I listened to that voice even when I didn’t want to. In hindsight, I see that my labor of desperation was, indeed, a Labor of Love, and I’m grateful for every bit of it. I now love myself and my life - even the parts that have brought me to my knees.

My inspiration for writing this year-long journey is to create more gratitude in your life and to encourage you to heal any pain from your past. Within these pages I’ve created 48 ways you can find new perspectives and gratitude for your life, the people around you, and the entire world.

Each way to finding gratitude falls into one of three themes: Acknowledging Self, Appreciating Others, or Experiencing the World. My belief is that as you grow in gratitude for yourself and your personal life experiences, you’ll open up more easily toward others and then the world. I’ve also included four special weeks that will encourage you to view your joy differently, and learn how happiness, peace, and love are things you can give freely to anyone and everyone in our world.

My suggestion for how you use this book is that you read one week’s content per week - preferably on the same day of the week throughout the year. Then spend the seven days recording gratitude on the journaling pages that follow. Each week will present a different focus within a theme.

If you’d like some helpful and free additional resources, there’s a web address at the back of each theme. Each address will direct you to a site where you can access information about self-forgiveness and forgiving others, how to remain more grounded in your life, guided meditations, how to live a life with more compassion for yourself and others, an extra, fun practice of gratitude, and how to heal the pain from your past. These are my gifts to you as I appreciate you reading my book!

With Love,

Shannon Elhart

Acknowledging Self

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Week One

Gratitude Focus: Free Joys

That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.

~ Henry David Thoreau

Money. It seems to be one