Member Reviews
Slowly paced book to help you have more gratitude in your life. I felt like practices helped me not only feel more grateful for what I have but also took a part of my worries going through the practices. Would definitely recommend to all of my overachieving folks who never stop to reflect on what they already have done.
Another self help book with the same message: if you are great full for your life, everything will work out and be awesome. Not practical advice. Would not recommend.
Science shows that even a minute of gratitude rewires the brain. What if you could rewire your brain to more positivity and creativity that easily?
However, author Kristi Nelson posits that thanks once in a while isn't the same as grateful living. She introduces 5 principles for grateful living - and encourages the read to adapt these into daily life. Whether it's being kind to yourself, others, or relishing nature, a life of gratitude spills over into care for the world.
Pick this one up if COVID has you dragging your heels or hunched at home depressed. Nelson will challenge you with good questions, can-do encouragement, and her own stories. Enjoy it!
The author does as exactly as the title states. Why and how we should be grateful each and everyday. Great reminders throughout. Well
Written.
Easy to read book which helped me begin a daily gratitude practice. I enjoyed how the writer wrote this and gave tips on how to improve your gratitude practice.
This book is dedicated to making gratefulness a practice in daily life. The author is a cancer survivor and it helps to frame the discussion and understanding of the importance of working each day to be grateful despite what may be going on or you have gone through.
After being diagnosed with cancer and unsure how long she would live, the author re-evaluated her life and began to appreciate the everyday things of life. She developed a habit of gratefulness. The cancer was successfully treated. As more time passed since her cancer went into remission, she became caught up in the daily grind and worldly attitudes. Her habit of gratefulness went by the wayside. When she eventually realized this, she also realized that the lack of gratefulness was mentally unhealthy. Utilizing the teachings of a Franciscan monk (Brother David Steindl-Rast) she has befriended and her own experiences, she has developed guidance for developing the habit of gratefulness and why it is so important and beneficial to do so.
The book sets forth the lessons she has learned and her tips for developing a habit of gratefulness, as well as tips for applying the habit of gracefulness in our everyday lives. "Gracefulness is gratitude for life....We do not need to do anything to feel grateful, or wait for anything more. We merely need to allow ourselves to notice and be wowed by things we so often overlook and tend to take for granted in the lives we already have." Throughout the book, the author provides prompts to get the reader thinking about how they can apply the lessons to their own lives. For example, "Appreciative Attention" -- "Commit to tending one thing you may have neglected." Or, "The Ordinary is Extraordinary" -- when we take nothing for granted, we can see how life is truly abundant; how much we actually have and how much is available to us. The author encourages people to "Stop. Look. Go." She also emphasizes practicing sustainability and engaging in activism to help our communities and the wider world. "What can you do today to nurture one new possibility for the life you are living now?
I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.
This was a pretty interesting concept and I enjoyed learning more about the idea of living more gratefully. This is definitely a useful book and learning about Kristi Nelson’s story was very inspiring. However, I feel there wasn’t enough there to help me personally with gratefulness.
I was not able to download this book, but it was too late to try to contact the publisher to get another eARC.
Wake up Grateful is a great reminder of what gratefulness is and reminds us that we can find it in the everyday. The questions at the end of each chapter are very helpful in digging deeper into our gratefulness journey. This book will be a reference to look back at as a reminder to Wake up Grateful each and everyday!
With recent times it is easy to forget the small things that we should be grateful for. This book explains gratitude so well and gives an understanding and by being grateful for what you have makes everything a lot better. Everyone should read this,
I loved this little gem of a book. It just solidifies what I know to be true, a grateful spirit brings good things to you. I wake up and thinking 5 things I’m grateful for every morning and every evening before bed. This book shows you how to change your perspective about loci bc what you have. This is a keeper and a book to go back to time and time again.
This falls into the uplifting category, but dare I say it, also success. Why? Well, when you develop the habit of positively framing the first moments of your morning you are setting the intention for a better day.
This is a book written by Kristi Nelson who struggled with stage four cancer at the age of 33. Read more....https://booksuplift.com/wake-up-grateful-take-nothing-for-granted/
I don't need to be sold on the power of gratitude. Gratitude has changed my outlook on life and has been a life altering experience for me. I was curious though to read Nelson's perspective on gratitude and to understand how I could learn to bring gratitude into more areas of my life.
The books is divided into two large sections -
Part 1 - includes Five Guiding Principles: Life is a Gift, Everything is Surprise, The Ordinary is Extraordinary, Appreciation is Generative and Love is Transformative.
Part 2 - shows us how we can bring the practice of gratitude into areas like relationships, loss and legacies.
The book is honest, brimming with wisdom and full of practical ways to be grateful. There are questions and journal prompts to help you move more deeply into mindfulness and gratitude.
If you are looking for a deeper practice of gratitude, this book will certainly serve as a guide.
Embrace the More Inclusive Idea of Gratefulness
Audiobook and eBook Review:
As one who enjoys reading self-help books, I couldn't pass this one up when I saw it at one of my favorite book review sites. I am so glad I chose it as both an audiobook and an eBook. While I certainly enjoyed listening to the author narrate the book—and I do think when authors narrate their own books, the audiobook is so much better because you can feel the author's passion for their writing and subject—I'm so glad I chose the eBook as well. Audiobooks pass through the mind so quickly, but this is a book to be savored and thought about. The author has dealt with medical issues and is also a spiritual seeker—in fact, her spiritual mentor wrote both the foreword and has quotes sprinkled liberally throughout. Both these aspects of her life inform this book. At the very beginning of the book, she distinguishes between the concepts of “gratitude” and “grateful.” While this might appear to be quibbling over details, the author explains herself well and shows how the concept of “grateful” is far more broad and inclusive than simple gratitude. Each chapter has insightful quotes that in themselves give you much to think of. She also has questions about each chapter's topic for you to consider, usually in several places, as well as how to practice what she is talking about in your own life. Occasionally, she offers affirmations as well. The book is so rich, and I know I will be returning to it to dive deeper into each chapter. I particularly liked the second part of the book, after the introduction to gratefulness, its five principles, and general practice, where she looks more deeply at gratefulness in the real world, at different aspects of our lives, like being grateful for our bodies, our emotions, nature, and even uncertain, grief, and loss. If you like pondering these kinds of topics as I do, you may enjoy this book or audiobook as much as I did.
I love how you can open a book and in helps transform you way of thinking. This book fits almost any place you might be in your life. This book is a keeper to revisit as needed. It was a great read during the pandemic.
I really enjoyed this book, which helped to boost my confidence and it reminded me to be grateful for everything in my life. While I read it, I was stressing about something in my life and this book reminded me not to focus on that stress and instead, be grateful for other things in my life which were a blessing. This is a great book which will help many people.
Many thanks to the author, publisher and netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This was a fab book that I think we all need right now! These are challenging times and that is often when it is most difficult to be grateful and thankful for what we have. I like that you can read Wake Up Grateful in segments and does not have to be digested all at one time. A well written daily reminder of gratitude perfect for our bed sides! Great information, would 100% recommend. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Gratitude: it is the antidote for whatever life throws at me. Wake Up Grateful is a great book to experience during the pandemic. I'd meant to explore it more around Thanksgiving, but was really able to dig in with the new year. It turns out Wake Up Grateful is timely whenever you get to read it. It feels very personal and intimate. Though the author began this journey when diagnosed with cancer, you do not need to be sick to appreciate its value. I think this book would be great for a book group-whether for one discussion or for a chapter by chapter study to really reflect.
Purchased this YA/middle grade novel for my middle school library. Superb character development, elegant world building, and compelling plotting.