A Little Gratitude Does Go A Long Way.
It's not something that most of us think about when we're going through a very rough patch in our lives. We get bogged down and blinded by the dark clouds that are hanging over our head and weighing us down, that we fail to practice the one thing that could possibly give us a ray of hope to hold on to: Gratitude.
Life's trials sometimes have a way of obscuring our vision from things that are going right in our lives. We spend so much time wallowing in the deep abyss of self pity, and singing an endless chorus of 'Why me?' while looking over the fence into other peoples' lives, wishing we had what they had, wondering where we made a wrong turn.
The grass is not always greener.
Now, I am usually a glass-half-full kinda girl, but even I have some 'Why me?' moments when it feels like life is not lining up right for me. I look around and see someone getting a promotion, while another one's life plays out like a Disney movie. Frolicking through the meadow with cute little forest animals singing along . And it just feels like life is happening around me and not to me.
Then at some point in my life, (probably after a few glasses of wine, and a flash of enlightenment) I had to take a step back and think 'Whoa! Chic...it can't be all bad?' Surely there are things in your life that are going right that you can be grateful for?'
Game changer!
My moment of enlightenment was backed up by a video* by Jay Shetty that was texted to me. At first I thought, 'Oh great, yet another viral video to fill up my phone' [insert eye roll emoji]. I watched it anyway, like we always do even after complaining about receiving random videos, half expecting to get nothing out of it and immediately delete it.
But this video hit home. He talked about how everyone's life "..happens according to our time, our clock", and that we shouldn't compare ourselves with others, but rather we should work on having a fulfilling life and not trying to keep up with people we think are ahead of us in life. Talk about an 'Aha!' moment. Complete game changer. This really spoke to me and made me realize that I should be grateful for where I am in my life, and just do what I can to appreciate the journey because it could be worse, I could be pushing up daisies!
So I don't have the fancy schmancy stuff that society has deemed is necessary to consider yourself remotely successful, but I have so much more I can be grateful for.
I get to be mom to two precious kids who fill my life with joy and squishy hugs, I have my health, my sanity (well, truth be told there might not be much left there after two kids, and alcohol), my hubby and awesome father to my kids, my parents and crazy siblings, fresh pastries with Kenyan tea, DVR, yoga pants, awesome friends, old school music, oh! I could go on and on.
Everyday I try to find something to be grateful for regardless of how small it may seem. And with each day I've realized I focus less and less on the things I don't have, and more and more on how blessed my life is. My point is, every single person's life happens in their own time, different from anyone else, and to waste time focusing on what is going wrong in your life, is a disservice to all the things that are going right. It's time to change the chorus from 'Woe is me' to 'Blessed is me!' and make the best of the time zone you are in right now. In this moment, make your life as fulfilling as possible, because that too is success.
Choose Gratitude.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S9E0MVteEc