Last night, I returned home from spending five days at a narrative therapy conference in the beautiful city of Vancouver.

Called Therapeutic Conversations, the conference was empowering. The souvenirs from my travels were a full heart, a journal filled with notes, and a camera of precious memories!

The word that summarizes my experience is: gratitude. Some conference goers (myself included) took part in an exercise on the first day about connecting with and appreciating our bodies. During this time, the facilitator asked us to focus our thoughts on our knees, and to thank them.

Taking time to do this small act made us aware of the fundamental importance of this part of our body. In many daily movements, our knees are doing work but we just don’t realize it.

Spending time thanking my knees reminded me to not forget their impact in helping us stand. So often they are overlooked as the knees work in collaboration with other parts. Our knees are worthy; they should be acknowledged, accepted, and appreciated for the tremendous work they do in our lives.

‘Thank you’ is such a small yet powerful statement. It should be said more often.

To carry on the lesson of gratitude, I’m going to thank my beautiful body more often; I plan to take time in my daily life to care for it.

Like our knees, our relationships and our connections with others are so valuable to our personal growth and development. Too often, we can take these relationships for granted. We can fail to express how valuable and meaningful their presence is in our lives.

Therefore, as the narrative therapy conference is now over and the participants have travelled home to various places around the world, I would like to take time to send letters of appreciation to those who touched my heart and mind. In appreciation, I will send them a “heartfelt” thank-you letter to let them know the tremendous value of the narrative therapy community. Like my “knees”, having the support of beautiful individuals will keep me standing tall in all areas of my life.

To my blogging community, I am so grateful for your presence in my life; you help make this a space for emergence.

What does ‘gratitude’ mean to you? How do you do express appreciation in your life?

Thank you for reading and your presence at this beach retreat. You Rock! I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comment section below.

See you at the beach!