Ten Frequently Asked Questions About The GG

$200 per participant (that's $5.00 a day to get your gratitude groove on), which includes 2 one-on-one, half-hour "gratitude therapy" phone consultations with Jill or Mary Kay. Jill is available to participants via email for questions or comments throughout the 40 days.
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Jill teaches the program with Mary Kay Cocharo, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and certified IMAGO therapist. Jill conducts the online program, writing and sending the daily gratitude thoughts/meditations/and questions. Both Jill and Mary Kay do phone consultations with the participating women. The Gratitude Groove in-person workshops are co-facilitated by Jill and Mary Kay as a team.

The GG 40-Day program starts on either the 1st or 15th of each month and goes for 40 Days.

The GG program takes 15-20 minutes a day, but some friends choose to talk or journal longer--that is optional and up to individual preferences. The program organically works for you all day without your constant attention when you do the following:
a) Read the daily gratitude thought and question each morning, which will be sent to you via email. Journal and discuss these with your gratitude girlfriend partner in the program.
b) Talk aloud with your gratitude girlfriend partner about what you are grateful for.
c) If you have resistance to gratitude, don't give up; keep expressing daily gratitude to your partner. This is a mental marathon and getting to the finish line does take willpower and endurance. It is simple but not easy to be grateful every day for 40 days. You are creating and deepening your gratitude groove more each day, and we promise it will be worth it.

What should I keep in mind when selecting a friend as my gratitude girlfriend partner?

Select a girlfriend who will be committed, dependable, and can allow the space and support for you to experience any emotion that could arise. It is best if you are of equal interest and participation in doing this program, rather than doing it to help a girlfriend feel better about her life. It can become an energy drain for one girlfriend to hold the program together for two people.

As long as you have email to get the daily gratitude thoughts and a phone to talk to your gratitude girlfriend, you can do this from anywhere. Many gratitude girlfriends don't even live in the same city or time zone and manage the daily gratitude sharing.

The power of saying something aloud gives you the ability to truly hear it and claim it, and you have a witness in your girlfriend lest you later forget what you're thankful for. Imagine if your husband or boyfriend only thought "I love you" but never said it to you. Which way do you think you'd most feel that love? No doubt, if he said it rather than just think it, right?! If you only think about what you're grateful for in your head, it doesn't come close to the power of talking about it.

Can you give an example of a daily gratitude thought that is emailed to participants?

"There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it behooves all of us not to talk about the rest of us."
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
Your Mission Impossible Gratitude Assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to find something good in someone that annoys you and make mental note of it--writing it down is even better. Now look at the aspect that annoys you about this person and examine how that quality is in you. Have you ever acted the way the person who's annoying you does? Or would you like to act or feel that way, if you could allow yourself to do so? For example, if someone's bad temper annoys you, do you wish you could be more in touch with your anger and better empowered to stand up for yourself? Can you appreciate that the person with the bad temper is, at the very least, a passionate person? Perhaps they care deeply about what they are mad about? Does this new way of thinking about the other person help you to understand and thus appreciate them more??

In spiritual history, the number 40 has been a powerful symbol of spiritual breakthrough and enlightenment. Buddha meditated under the Bodhi tree for 40 Days in his quest for enlightenment. Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights before beginning his public teaching ministry. Noah sailed the rainy seas for 40 days and 40 nights, before stepping out of the ark to see a rainbow, representing God's promise of the continuation of life and gifts of answered prayers. Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 Days and 40 nights before delivering The Ten Commandments. Of course, these are all spiritual giants, but let's not underestimate the power of girlfriends working together in gratitude for 40 days.

Like any personal growth program, you'll get out of it what you put into it. If you stick to the daily commitments of the 40 Day practice, you will have a deeper, more loving connection to yourself, your gratitude girlfriend, and to all people. Additionally, a number of benefits of gratitude will show up for you during and after the 40 days.
The Benefits of Gratitude