I woke up this morning and I was just so happy and grateful for life. I have been sick at home for the past four days and thankfully, not bad enough for me to get hospitalized. But just waking up with pain and enduring it through the day was weighing on my soul. I was praying and just telling God to take the pain away.
Then this morning I wake up and it’s still there but very mild that I barely notice it and I was so thankful. Yes, my prayer was not answered the way I expected but I am alive and I am able to write about this. It’s all about thanksgiving everyday and it just got me thinking about gratitude and what it is all about.
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”
Melody Beattie
According to the Merriam-Webster, gratitude is a state of being grateful: thankfulness. Another word that can mean the same is appreciation. It is a strong feeling of appreciation to someone or something for what the person has done to help you.
Harvard Medical School elaborates on this and says,” a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives. As a result, gratitude also helps people connect to something larger than themselves-whether to other people, nature or a higher power.”
Thanksgiving Everyday
Can you imagine that? But why is gratitude so important? It comes from the fact that according to Dr. Robert Emmons, the worlds leading expert on gratitude, it happens in two stages: the first is acknowledging the goodness in one’s life and then the second is recognizing that some of this goodness is due to external sources like people, the world, nature.
When I thought of it in that way, I realized why I was grateful this morning- Life is good. It truly is inspite of the pains in it like me actually being in physical pain but still life is good. Why do I say that? Well, I woke up to a beautiful day- the sun was out shining, I could hear the birds chirping away, my sister had made me juice and I thought, ‘Wow, today is gonna be a good day!!’
“Waking up in the morning, seeing the sun rise(Well, well) Is enough to say, ”I thank you Lord.” Rolling over, seeing my baby’s eyes, uh, Is enough to say, ”I thank you Lord” I just wanna say thank you(Thank you) Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Lord”
Be thankful ~Natalie Cole
So what are you thankful for? I am sure there are million of things that you are grateful for but many times, we are looking so far– wanting to be thankful for the big things but in the end, it’s the small things that matter. You woke up this morning. You have breath in you. You have food on the table. It may not be the delicacy you want but you have food.
So why don’t you take time and write it all down. We don’t have to wait for Thanksgiving Day that comes just once a year. We can have thanksgiving everyday. Just write it down somewhere, maybe in your notebook and journal and when those gloomy days come, you are able to look back on the good that has happened in your life. Let us cultivate being grateful. So we can declare, That’s who I am. This is me!
#ThisisMe
#BeAuthenticallyYou
#MyStoryMyBrand
I’m thankful for you, your health and this Thanksgiving post.
Thank you!