I’ll be 100% honest with you – I wasn’t going to write a Sunday Sage post this week.

By the time the Grow Your Gorgeous 2016 Daybook was launched on Wednesday, I was so exhausted that all I wanted to do was flake out on the sofa and watch the entire box set of Lord of the Rings with AJ and Ro (we managed the Fellowship and the Two Towers).

Then, I started to get the nicest messages from people who had bought the book and some ladies that I’d sent it to as an early Christmas gift.  The moment I read the messages, it was as if their gratitude leapt through the internet and restored all of the worn out, tired bits in me.

Their thanks felt like medicine … Beautiful Balm for a Burnt Out Bethan.

Personally, I think that’s the gorgeous thing about giving someone a gift; that feeling of seeing someone truly receive and love what they’ve been given. Their happiness becomes contagious. It ripples back to you, the giver – and goodness knows who else standing near by. It’s a reward in itself … a win-win all round.

There’s a lot of stuff written about the physiological effects of gratitude.

Research shows that genuinely expressing …

In this crazy Christmas frenzy of gift buying and giving, I invite you to try and get connected to the spirit of gratitude and what is amazing and beautiful in this world. Appreciate what is going on around you RIGHT NOW. No lists. Just awareness. So easy.

Have a gorgeous week!