Wake Up Grateful: The Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted

Nelson, executive director of A Network for Grateful Living, battled stage IV cancer in her early 30s and learned from this experience that life is a gift that should not be taken for granted. Nelson’s book presents her grateful-living practices—Stop (become present); Look (seek grateful perspectives); Go (create possibilities to be thankful)—and other concepts that serve as guides to leading a more gratifying life. Nelson uses the “Stop, Look, Go” framework to address life’s difficulties (demanding relationships, grief, illness, loss, and negative emotions, for example) and to provide readers with the techniques to cope with these challenges. Each chapter includes questions for readers to ponder, a variety of practices/exercises, inspirational poetry, reflections from people who have embraced living gratefully, and thought-provoking aphorisms. The chapter on appreciating nature in a world that often takes it for granted is especially noteworthy.