Gratitude
What is gratitude? What does gratitude look like? How can you improve your outlook on life and use more gratitude? All these questions are very open ended and can differ from person to person.
I define gratitude as being thankful for what makes you, be you. I think it’s about looking at what’s in front of you and appreciating the journey your on to make everyday a relatively good one. This includes looking at past experiences that has affected where you currently are. It could even be something that appears so tiny but helps to impact your emotional state and feelings. For example, I really appreciate a good meal. Whether it be home cooked or at a restaurant I really enjoy eating good food. It makes me happy in many cases. And of course, the opposite happens when I get a bad meal, and a server at a restaurant doesn’t live up to my expectations.
Gratitude might look different person to person but one thing that is likely common among all, is that showing gratitude requires a level of self-awareness that not every can easily tap into but has the potential to reflect on what they can be grateful for. If you’re struggling with something and you feel out of sorts, I would always suggest grounding yourself by thinking about what you can be grateful for in that current moment. Perhaps you feel all is going wrong around you, there are still so many things you can appreciate in that moment. It could be, having a safe home to live in, could be the ability to purchase that last meal you had at lunch, or even the ability to have emotions and feel things some people simply can’t and won’t appreciate.
Being grateful and spending time in self-reflection is a great way to feel grounded and put you on the path to feeling better about your current situation, no matter what you’re feeling, good or bad. If you struggle to find the positive when all seems dark, don’t judge yourself. Start small, appreciate the ability to try to feel better. Appreciate the journey even though in the moment you feel like nothing else can make you feel worse or that there’s no way out of those negative thoughts.
Gratitude takes root,
Self-awareness sets it free,
Path blooms in thanks to light.