Note: This post originally appeared on Modern Shamanic Living

Gratitude: the state of being grateful: THANKFULNESS.

So you've made your daily gratitude lists, filled those jars and whatnot but you're still not feelin' it? I'm not surprised. Small daily habits are essential for change but are they enough to change your state of being? Superpower activation is going to require a lot more beingness and a little less doingness.

Here's what I mean. How different would your life look if you walked through it in a state of being grateful? Wouldn't everything seem completely different? Could you ever feel crappy while you are filled with the feeling of gratitude?

The thing is, your life can only be as you see it.

Let me repeat that...

Your life can only be as you see it.

Said in another way; who you are being, shapes the way your life goes.

Once you understand and accept this, it changes everything. But you should also know, it's a little like Pandora's box, and you can't put the lid back on. However, it's vital that you truly get it before you can have gratitude as a superpower.

So, how do you BE grateful? As the definition suggests, gratitude is a state of being. Just knowing this is helpful. You can't change what we're not aware of; so now you know. But how can you go from feeling grateful only some of the time to most of the time? How does it become a superpower?

Here's a practice upgrade for you:

Dawn Whitehorn,
Shamanic Energy Medicine Practitioner and SheHive KeyHolder

By definition to resolve means to solve a problem. Which is exactly I why reject the idea of new year resolutions. I am not a problem to be resolved - and neither are you.

Which is not to say that I don’t believe in striving to reach new heights, or in refining habits, or learning new things, or in goal-setting - because I do. But I don’t believe that you can shame yourself into being someone you love and respect (and neither does science, by the way).

​So I don’t set new year resolutions anymore. In fact, I didn’t do much of anything in the last few weeks of 2018 other than just be… be present, be with my family, be with strangers, be in nature, be in my body and not just my head. Just be.

​It’s been blissful. Glorious, even.

The Mister and I spent seven days in Maui, followed by a short road trip through the U.P. to see his family and then on to Green Bay and back.

We watched a sunrise from atop a volcano, drove one-lane, unpaved roads along brilliant cliffs in the rain, body-surfed waves, swam with sea turtles, shopped in remote art galleries (bumping into Woody Harrelson twice, no less!), ate magnificent food, attended a luau, spent evenings in hot tubs discussing politics with other travelers from all over the world, and dressed ourselves in 100 layers so we could sit for three hours in the end zone at Lambeau Field in 30 degree weather to watch the Lions demolish the Packers (sorry, Mom). We also hosted friends for late night drinks while home, visited with my family, napped nearly every day and spent copious hours tucked in our basement watching movies with the fireplace on.

​So much presence. So much connection. So much rest and relaxation and renewal.

My social media streams are full of new year’s resolutions and proclamations right now. Multitudes of friends and acquaintances that have started new lives with the new year - new diets, new habits, new programs. I started to feel almost bad for a minute there - like I was late to the party because there is nary an inkling of an idea in this head of what I want 2019 to be.

​Are you on your own timeline or path when it comes to new year plans? I’d love to hear your story. Drop a comment below or shoot me an email at hello@theshehive.com.

​With much love and gratitude,

Ursula Adams, MSPOD
​SheHive Founder

One of the first things I did when considering the SheHive was to define what a perfect day would look like for me once the idea came to fruition. It went a little something like this…

Wake up with the sun, drink coffee, write for a few hours, go to yoga, have lunch with friends, coach private clients all afternoon, teach an early evening class, head home for dinner with the Mister and big group of friends, unwind with a long walk afterwards, then take in a glorious eight hours of luxurious sleep.

I’ve since learned that luxurious sleep - eight hours or otherwise - is for the dead and people that don’t own their own business. So are daily visits to yoga studio. In fact, most of the tasks on on my perfect day list are near impossible on a daily basis with my current schedule.

So you know what that means? Damned near every day is a failure. Ugh.

​Just ugh.

a day so near perfect that I found tears of gratitude and joy rolling down my cheeks at one point and time. I did have lunch with friends and I did make it to the yoga studio, but a lot of what I thought made up a perfect day didn't actually happen. Lots of other stuff happened, though. When I reflected back on the tears and the day it finally hit me,  my perfect day isn’t a set of prescribed activities, it’s a a set of feelings and experiences. It's connection.

I connected with the people I love most.
I felt connected to and in my body.
I was inspired.
I shared my story.
I was grounded in purpose and legacy.

And all those things? They can happen a million different ways on any given day. In fact, they often do and I often overlook them - searching instead for an idealized version of them.