Being Grateful

Just for today……. I will be grateful for my many blessings.
This can be hard sometimes we feel like life is just against us.  We might be short of money, in a bad relationship, in poor health or maybe all of those and more.  If this is the case then what is there to be grateful for?  And yet some of the most positive people I have met or read about are those who face major adversity in their lives; people with terminal illness, people who have suffered great loss and through this process they learn to live each day at a time and sometimes each minute at a time.  They no longer moan about insignificant things, they do not feel the need to tear their fellow human beings down.

My daughter goes to Kabubbu in Uganda when she can, to volunteer and visit a child that she sponsors.  When she asked her sponsor child what she could give him, alongside paying for his education, he asked for a pair of shoes so that he could walk to school.  Just one pair of shoes gave such joy to this child and made a difference to his life.  How many pairs of shoes do you have?  I have far too many and sometimes still find myself thinking I ‘need’ some more.

Many of us think that we can find happiness by surrounding ourselves with things and yet those things do not make us truly happy, of course they give us a temporary ‘buzz’ when we buy them, but that isn’t the sort of happiness I am speaking of, I mean truly happy in your heart.

Here are my thoughts on being grateful:

1. If you are finding life a struggle try and find some joy in the simple things, the laughter of a child, the song of a bird, savour drinking a glass of water – many don’t have that luxury.
2. Next time you think you must buy something new to ‘treat’ yourself take that money and give it to charity,  How does it make you feel?  You could make a real difference.  Remember every river, lake and ocean is made up of tiny drops of water.
3. Sometimes if you are stuck in the black vortex of depression trying to find joy in something is almost impossible, if you do find something positive write it down so that you can look back at it.  If you can get help.  Reiki can work really well alongside CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) and conventional medications.

Find something to be grateful for each day, you will be surprised what a difference it can make to your life.  It can be a good idea to make a gratitude list, sometimes writing things down can be very powerful.