2 unsatisfying stars  

Waking Up Grateful is well organized. Part I covers Five Guiding Principles: Life is a Gift, Everything is Surprise, The Ordinary is Extraordinary, Appreciation is Generative, and Love is Transformative. Part II focuses on bringing the grateful practice into areas we need support, such as emotions, relationships, loss, and our world, and ‘legacy.’ 

Nelson’s book Wake Up Grateful states that it is offered as a guidebook – plus much more. A book you can pick up any time, open, and find a nugget of wisdom, a quote, a poem, a practice or a question to reflect on. And it shares a personal story of hope. What more could one want, I ask, starting to read with an open mind.  

As a practicing Christian, I am already grateful Every day. For some reason, I expected the book to mention God, giver of life, Creator of all I am grateful for. What I got was a repetitious new age ‘mumbo-jumbo’ of affirmations, sprinkled with poems and questions. She speaks of reframing thoughts from I must to I get to. This is not a new or profound insight.  

I’m not supposed to quote from the unpublished version, but here is a typical sample of the writing. “It is our full aliveness that wakes up the presence of joy. It is in learning to embrace and appreciate the fullness of your life as it is that joy emerges.” Living gratefully makes our hearts overflow into generosity and kindness. My opinion – this is wishful thinking, not grateful thinking, but God is with us in the hard times as well as the joyful ones. Nelson writes that Nature, Love, Light, and Poetry (her caps) are sacred to her. I ask, what about God?! God (by whatever name you use) is so much more than this vague, floating around spirit within us that new agers allude to.  

Nelson writes that life has been given to you. I would add, by our abiding, loving God. She writes that we all want to feel wanted, to belong. I argue, that as Believers, we Do belong. If we read scriptures, we learn that we Belong. Anyone wanting to develop a practice of gratitude in a lasting way would be wise to read the Psalms, especially in the modern vernacular by Eugene Peterson. The practice of gratitude has been around for thousands of years. Study the Source.  

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who has had a lot take place in my life, but who is lucky to still be waking every day, I am a firm believer in waking up knowing you are lucky and have a great opportunity. I loved this book’s message and the way the author talked to us about waking up grateful. In a world where people often take the small things in life for granted, this book is a staple, as it shows you how lucky you are to have the life you do and how to never take things you do have or opportunities/lessons you are given for granted.

This was a really uplifting read that came along at just the right time.  It was encouraging in the best of ways.  I think the title says it all and in this book the author really encourages and shows you how to do that.

There is a difference between Gratefulness and Gratitude. I appreciate Kristi Nelson’s stark distinction between the two in WAKE UP GRATEFUL because this is far too often overlooked. 

The activities in the book are actionable, and there are lovely passages interspersed throughout the book. While its positive message goes a long way (especially this year), there are many redundancies that made reading through less enjoyable for me. Driving the point home is necessary, especially when developing a new mindset and incorporating daily habits, but at times, it was a little much.

I appreciate Nelson’s heartfelt approach to this subject, and it’s clear that so much love was put into creating this book. It’s a guide, not a product for casual consumption!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC and the opportunity to share my reading experience

I think this is a lovely book that has mindfulness and meditations ideas on helping you wake up grateful and appreciate what you have as you get going each morning. As a person who struggles with depression I really try to do morning meditations and concentrate on the things I am grateful for so I found this book enlightening and helpful. 

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

The focus of Wake Up Grateful is on taking a proactive approach to gratitude and mindfulness. I like the way that Nelson phrased it:

“Gratefulness is a way of being that helps us focus our attention and navigate our lives with gratitude as our compass.”https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3518241530

Nelson's book is divided into two sections. The first discusses five guiding principles and then five perspectives for cultivating a gratitude mindset. One of the five principles, for example, was about finding ways to value and appreciate the ordinary. The second part of the book focuses on the practice as applied to specific commonalities such as loss and relationships and legacies. 

This is a book that would be helpful to anyone interested in mindfulness and practicing gratitude. Questions such  as:

“In what areas of life do you find that expectations or assumptions diminish your capacity to appreciate what actually unfolds in your life?”

Similar questions are scattered throughout the book and make great gratitude journal prompts.

I found this book to be helpful. Being grateful and mindful are trending right now with the stress of the current pandemic and the unknowns of the future.

"Wake Up Grateful" 
5/5 Stars!

Wow! I am honestly speechless at how good this book is - and that never happens! I laughed, I cried, I pondered life and what's important - I did it all while reading this book.

This is an easy 5 star read for me as it is one that I will totally recommend to all, no matter what stage of life they're in and will also be one that I purchase for those within my family/friends who read.

What an inspiring and tactile read for those who are looking to achieve greater happiness and contentment within their life. Written by someone who was diagnosed stage 4 cancer in her early thirties, I think all who read will think about their own life and learn to not take anything for granted. I'm in true awe of this book and am now the biggest Kristi Nelson fan!

Everyone, PLEASE do yourself a favor and buy this book as soon as it hits the shelves, which is: 11/24/2020.

A

As I am currently researching about gratitude and grateful living, this book came at the perfect time. I got the chance of reading a detailed book about grateful living with tips and prompts at the end of each chapter. 

However, I couldn't connect with the book as much as I wished. All the helpful and reasonable topics discussed in the book seemed to fly past me. This is at my fault because the book is very well crafted and composed. 

I cannot rate it properly, but I would still recommend to anyone interested in the subject.

The book, “Wake Up Grateful” is a guidebook and framework to transform your life. It allows you to see your life as a source of hope. Due to the current national pandemic, this book is especially helpful and can be a transforming process of your everyday life. You can use what that author has set forth in this book and personalize it to what works for you. Part 1 of this book focuses on the 5 guiding principles for grateful living. These 5 guiding principles include: life is a gift, everything is a surprise, the ordinary is the extraordinary, appreciation is generative, and love is transformative. One of the most transformational aspects that I took from this book included the practice of changing your everyday tasks from ‘obligations’ to ‘opportunities’. This is something that really made me stop and think. While I get so bogged down in everyday life with what I ‘have’ to do, I should merely be glad that I am ‘able’ to do so. I also liked the focus that expectations and assumptions lead to anger, regret, and disappointments. Not only does this author point out the guiding principles, but she also provides specific practices of how to put these principles into your daily life. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to change their thoughts about being more grateful. I am appreciative of the author, Kristi Nelson, Storey Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me the opportunity to review this book and provide feedback.

I was hoping this book could give me some guidance into working myself out of the funk I have been in lately. I didn't really care for the way it was set up, and it wasn't anythi g geoundbreaking that I hadnt read before. If you've never read a book on gratitude this may help you, but otherwise I'd look elsewhere.

This is a well written and timely book, especially in today’s pandemic times.  Remembering and practicing gratefulness is a life saver of our sanity.

This is a really interesting book about practicing Gratefulness, which I learned is similar to, but distinct from practicing Gratitude. It's a very dense book, full of journal prompts and activities you can try to add more gratefulness into your life. I particularly enjoyed the authors descriptions of how to find gratefulness while dealing with medical uncertainty.

I received a copy of the ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The practice of gratitude is a key to living an authentic and contended life and also invaluable to those in recovery from various addictions. I discovered  A Network for Grateful Living and Gratefulness.org earlier this year and it is a benefit to starting or ending my day on the right note. This book will be welcome addition to the collection on this topic. Thanks for an early look.

I selected this book as I generally just love these kind of topics, I had no real expectations, based on the subject matter took an interest.  I got much more than I expected from it, before I even reached the end. This is the kind of book that could really help everyone, from those who are in deep need of uplifting, direction, a reason to keep going. And those like me, who just love this stuff! And take an interest.  What I loved about this book right for the first chapter is that, it's practical so you can apply what  you're reading.  The book is split in to two main sections 'from gratitude to grateful living' and 'grateful living in the real world.' The author clearly explains the difference between 'gratitude' and  'gratefulness' , I could see the points made well. I had never seen them as different more interchangeable. In my mind once this was established I could clearly see how I could step up my daily practice of gratitude, by adapting the POV the author explains so well with the 'grateful approach.' 

The best thing is, this approach is outlined in a practical way, for example writing out a to do list, with a different mind set. Eg  'this week I have to x,y,z'  to 'this week I am grateful I get to do x,y,z'. When I did this first exercise the burden of my to do list totally felt different! I could see why, how, and where the author's approach can help not only  me, but also uplift, focus you, add motivation, and drive for us all! This is just one example of the many exercises, practical reflections, and points to ponder in the book. 

Overall, this is a very practical guide, and can be used as a reference for what you need to focus on personally, or read from cover to cover.  I feel it  could be highly valuable for a lot of people, and a great companion to have to help set your goals, intentions,  manifest the life you want, and keep yourself in a positive state of mind at all times. I very much recommend it for everyone! Especially if you're a busy person, with a lot to do, or  you just need a pick me up, or even if  you enjoy subjects like gratitude, spirituality and believe in the power of the Universe. I can't wait until my copy arrives! 5 must read stars.

During this pandemic I feel like everyone is going to the self help section. This book is a must read. Things will not get any easier and I plan on using this book again

Wake up Grateful always!

This reminder is especially important if you are when we are stuck quarantined in the pandemic. To remind ourselves to be grateful. I thank netgalley for this book 

Converting your distress to Thank you is really important to survive in this tough world. After having gone through a bad phase in my life, i can very well relate to the book.

Really helps for people who feels let down in life daily.

Highly recommended to get a good happy body, mind and soul.

I will suggest this book to the seniors
Who I teach basic computer technology 
Although it doesn’t touch on my training it will help them to gain confidence and learn to organize their thoughts which is essential in working first time with computers and the technology that goes with it

I feel like this is such a timely book! I enjoyed reading the author’s story, she is inspirational. I found the suggestions helpful and I plan to continue building on my gratitude practice.

With all of the problems that this year has brought, I was looking for something to help put life in perspective and be grateful for all that I still have. This book was a good reminder to be grateful everyday, even for the smallest things. At times it was a little long winded, but I enjoyed it and it was a bright spot in my day.