It’s that time of year again, where being grateful becomes a daily practice. This is the time of year to be thankful, but there might be some things in your life you wish were going more smoothly. Maybe you’ve experienced recent setbacks; in times of difficulty it can be even harder to be grateful. But I invite you to choose gratitude as a way of life. That means being thankful for EVERYTHING in your daily experience.
When we can practice being thankful, our lives will improve dramatically. I know firsthand about the power of gratitude. When my doctor diagnosed me with clinical depression several years ago and I was working in a corporate job that I hated, I turned to gratitude. The first thing I did to help pull me out of the dark period of my life was to be thankful for all things in my life, including the things I use to hate. The boss who was hard to work with suddenly became a person I could practice empathy with. The job in corporate I once hated became the abundant source of funding my future life—by saving more, I was able to build a savings to leave that life behind and become an author and life coach.
This holiday season, to really transform your life, consider being thankful for even the most difficult situations. When you can see the good in everything, your life will change in the most beautiful ways. You will feel less anxious and more at peace, you will be more present, and you will appreciate yourself and others more.
Gratitude is a powerful process to help you shift your energy to more love, and the mere act of choosing to focus on what is good will help you attract more of what you want. To go deeper into your gratitude practice, try to be grateful for the things you usually aren’t.
Here are 10 things to be thankful for that you most likely take for granted:
- Your struggles. Be thankful for your struggles; they have helped you find strength.
- Your body. The snug pants and extra weight on your body mean you have had enough to eat.
- The goals that have yet to be realized. The goals that have not come true yet? You get to practice patience and trust.
- Setbacks. The life lessons you are learning mean you are still growing.
- Wrong turns in life. The wrong turns and unmet expectations have helped you get clear about what you don’t want.
- Unsupportive people. The people who don’t support you give you the opportunity to believe in yourself more.
- Your over obsessive mind. It gives you depth of character and an understanding for what is possible in life.
- The financial frustrations. The investments that didn’t work out as planned also mean you had the money to try new things.
- The people who have wronged you. You get to practice forgiveness.
- You. The person you see in the mirror is the chance to celebrate the person you have become.
If you want to deepen your gratitude practice check out my book Adventures for Your Soul.
