Gratitude

Hello!! For a couple of weeks, I did not have time or felt “inspired” to write and I mad a commitment with myself to do it this weekend. Luckily, my morning meditation today reminded me of a draft post I have about “gratitude”. For those who know me for a while, they know I encourage and practice gratitude. I have been using the gratitude jar, but a dear friend talked me into gratitude diary. I confess that I was reluctant in the beginning because the idea of a daily exercise anticipated the feeling of an obligation – despite my discipline with a lot of things, I’m not a fan of obligations and routines 😊 -, and automatically I was already  feeling “tired”.

So, what is a gratitude diary?! It is a notebook where you write down daily at least 10 things you are grateful for. I’m a Christian and whenever I pray, which is not every day, I start thanking God for different things, people and situations in my life And I have to say that I’m loving the gratitude practice, it is making me feel good. I have to say that in some days, you have things, situations, people that made your day so exceptional making more easy feeling grateful. In the opposite, other days, I start writing more as part of the ritual, not necessarily “feeling grateful” as I start, but when I’m done I have a smile on my face and I realize how grateful am I for the “little things.” What are the “little things”? I think the little things are those things, situations, people in our life, not little by the size or value, but “little” because they are so familiar to us, we have in our hand ever day which we can easily take for granted and forget to be grateful for daily. The gratitude practice made me appreciate moments, people and things in a more intense way… the constant awareness that my life, my health, my food, my house, clothes, family, friends, work and everything else is privilege, not granted to all, reminds me that despite all challenges in life I am blessed, loved and the little is in truth a lot.

Months ago, in one of my dates, we decided to use some the questions of the famous list 36 questions that make people fall in love (if we fell in love is a subject for different post 😊) and one of the question we chose was “For what are you most grateful in life?”* He listed things I usually also list and was listening and thinking that  I would answer pretty the same, but when it was my time, I started wondering and thought my answer would be so long, considering my standard list of things I’m grateful. For the first time, my answer was that I am most grateful because I’m able to be grateful. I know it can seem like a cliche, but unfortunately, it’s not. We can spend hours, days, years and life’s not appreciating or acknowledging what, who we had or what have, therefore we cannot be happy, in peace, therefore I am grateful to be grateful.

Now, does being grateful means that I don’t want anything else, I don’t want more in or for my life? Nooooo, I practice gratitude but surely, I want more for me, for my life. I practice gratitude but I complain, sometimes, some days, most of the time, I am human.

Practicing gratitude daily brings me to the state of mind of enjoying me and my life, makes me see and feel the Beauty of life and again of the “little” things. 🙏🏾

Do you have a gratitude practice? If yes how often do you practice?
If not, would you like to start?

Be brave. Be you. Be happy.
P