Practicing Gratitude: Challenge Accepted (#2)

On this adventure series, we are challenging ourselves with Practicing Gratitude. Those who practice gratitude report feeling better, find it easier to express kindness and compassion and clinical trials have indicated dramatic and lasting effects in a person’s life. According to Robert A. Emmons, professor of psychology at UC Davis, practicing gratitude can lower blood pressure, improve immune function and facilitate more efficient sleep.

The benefits of practicing gratitude seem too good to be true. So this month, we are putting it to the test. We will begin this challenge Thursday, March 5th. If you are listening to this later than March 5th, no worries at all! These challenges will always be available for you to engage. If you catch us halfway thru one you are interested in, simply sign up and start your own 21 day challenge. You’ll still enjoy some weekly info from us, or be able to go back and listen to the episodes as you go through the 3 weeks of each challenge.

So, how do you join us? That’s easy!

SETUP AN ACCOUNT ON STICKK. It’s free. You’ll setup a profile and commit to our gratitude campaign. This is where you can choose which level you want to participate in. Once you’ve chosen, you can set your stakes..You can put up some money to go to the effective altruism approved Give Well Foundation, our preferred charity, if you miss a day, and set the amount you’re willing to lose each day to help you stick to your goal. You can also lose that money to a friend, foe, to Stickk, or even an anticharity of your choice. We ask that you don’t choose the anticharity, as effective as it might be to help you commit. Stickk is working on an option for us to opt out of that option on our campaigns altogether. Lastly, you can select “no money at stake” to opt out of this option. It’s totally up to you.

Next, you can set your referee. This can be “on your honor”, or an individual. This can be a friend, relative, spouse, etc. and you’ll enter their email or if you’re participating in this challenge with someone you live with, consider using each others Stickk username.

Finally, you can add supporters who will help cheer you on! (with this challenge, it doesn’t seem super important, but if you were doing something much harder like quitting smoking, this could be an amazing feature and might come in handy if you find our challenges difficult.) You can also auto-accept supporters directly from Stickk, which allows us to support each other with ease. You can also invite friends on Facebook, or through email addresses or stickk usernames. And again, you can skip this altogether if you aren’t in need of external support.

That’s it! Stickk will send you a daily reminder via email, phone notification or both, to help you remember to stickk to your commitment! It’s very easy to setup, and it can be as complex or passive as you want it to be.

Again, go to Just go to stickK.com/playingwithfire or download the app and our activation code is gratitude (all lowercase).

Next, choose your adventure. We will be establishing 3 levels on Stickk in which to participate. We are doing this because we want to standardize the challenge somewhat while acknowledging that everyone feels different levels of participation work for them. There is no right or wrong, this is not a competition. Just choose which level feels right to you.

Level 1:

• Keep a journal every day

Level 2:

• Keep a journal
• Post your gratitude on social daily
• Smile before every meal

Level 3:

• Keep a journal
• Post on social daily
• Smile before every meal
• Write a letter to a friend, loved one, co-worker, barista every day and deliver.
• Create a Gratitude Station in your home.

Join our EMAIL LIST via our website so you don’t miss the challenge steps. Join our FACEBOOK GROUP so we can all learn from each other as we go along. And follow us on the socials, specifically INSTAGRAM, where we plan to share our progress every day of every challenge and hope you will too.

What you'll need to participate:

So, obviously, you'll want to sign up for all the previously mentioned apps and socials and such. It's not mandatory, but it's proven to be more effective in helping you stick to this challenge. The one thing you will need regardless of the level you choose is a gratitude journal. Obviously you can pick up a blank notebook, use your phone or computer, however you like to jot things down.