For most of us it’s easy to be grateful when everything is going smoothly, your relationships are all peaceful and nurturing, you have the job you want and live in a place you love and enjoy fulfilling hobbies. Many struggle to be grateful when they are in the middle of a financial crisis or sitting in traffic while running late to work. In this series, I am going to share with you the benefits of focusing on gratitude no matter what is going on in life. Not only have I become a more peaceful and compassionate person since beginning to focus on gratitude, but I am also the fittest I have ever been in my life and am achieving my goals which I see as direct results of this practice. That may seem like a stretch that gratitude led to my fitness but I assure you that is part of my truth.

I chose to start this this blog topic today because I am currently involved in a Gratitude Challenge where I am matching every dollar contributed with a gratitude. I am committed to having at least 2000 gratitudes with no repeats. The fundraising goal is $274, 000. I will do as many as possible with no repeats. Frankly I am curious how many I can do! As a curiosity, how many gratitudes can you list before having to think for a while? Most people can do quite a few before having to think for a while. There are some things that most folks include like health, family, having a job etc. We all nod our heads in agreement that those are good things to be grateful for when they do. Have you ever had someone list something as a gratitude and you couldn’t see how they could be grateful for such a thing? I have. I have also been the friend getting the strange look from her friends. I, like many people often list my health as a reason to be grateful. To some that may not cause so much as an eyebrow raise, but for some who know I have lived with Multiple Sclerosis and it’s effects for 19 years, that may cause surprise. The truth is that when I live a lifestyle of gratitude I am able to experience gratitude, and with it peace, within the challenge not despite it. Today we will use the common experience of being stuck in traffic and later in the series we will see how to expand our practice to sustain us through larger challenges.

In my life gratitude is a verb. I verbally give thanks to Creator, using a variety of names, throughout the day every day.  I thank people I do business with, using their name if I know it and asking if I don’t. I allow my actions to be a prayer of gratitude for all of the blessings I have received and continue to receive. I make gratitude lists regularly. I posted daily gratitude lists for two-and-a-half years without missing a day (or making up if I did) on Facebook. I stopped posting them when life got hectic, but kept up the private practice of making gratitude lists. I have since begun posting on FB again. I haven’t always been this overtly grateful, and indeed I spend many years feeling entitled to anything I was able to wrestle into my possession and angry when things didn’t work in my favor. For those who are looking for a fast answer or a “magic pill” to inspire gratitude, I am going to dash your hopes early in the blog and save you some time. I didn’t find gratitude that way. Perhaps it is possible, but that wasn’t my experience. The good news is that the process wasn’t painful; it has been the opposite in fact. The change had been brewing in me for years. I felt duplicitous, feeling connected to the universe and all of it’s inhabitants and at the same time feeling just a little more entitled than anyone else to the gifts of the Universe. I acknowledged that we all had a responsibility to the Earth and it’s inhabitants, but sometimes lived as if my needs and wants were more of a priority than that of another or the Earth. I was becoming more and more uncomfortable with the reality that my words and my actions were incongruent with one another.   I felt like a victim much of the time and was quick to blame the nearest passerby for my internal discontent. I don’t know exactly when the shift began to occur. The shift was so subtle as to be barely perceptible. As imperceptible as it may have been, the shift was all-encompassing infiltrating my thoughts first. Although the specific date is a blur, I remember the day I chose gratitude. I had been practicing mindfulness for a while and had a comfortable understanding of the Law of Attraction. I was sitting in morning traffic. My normally 30 minute drive was predicted to take 45 and the freeway felt like a free-for-all that day. I was grouchy and didn’t appreciate being cut off by the car ahead of me. I am not one to flip the bird, but I do talk to the other drivers on the road offering both commentary and compliments. That day I recall being irritated that the car in front of me rushed to get in front of me, and then put on the brakes. I was already annoyed by my drive time and traffic in general. I wanted to be in a more positive mindset by the time I said “Good Morning to my first client. Then a fully formed idea popped into my mind. “Make a list of the things you are grateful for”. “Screw that!” My grouchy brain responded. After a small internal scuffle, I started. “I am grateful that car didn’t hit me when it got over”. I decided to be grateful until I felt better. I listed 15 things before realizing that indeed, I would arrive at my job in a positive mood. That positive mood persisted throughout a rather mundane day. I decided to make it a practice to make a gratitude list when I started to feel stressed or annoyed by circumstances around me. While I am generally a good natured woman, I have a low tolerance for incompetence and practiced ineptitude. Sadly many places that I go seem to value these very things in their customer service personnel. I made a lot of gratitude lists. Then I started to notice that practiced ineptitude annoyed me less. I was calm and was able to slow down and see that some of the incompetence was circumstances beyond the worker’s control. I was able to be more sensitive to their predicament. Because I was more sensitive, I was less snarky. As lots of folks can attest, we can make a case for whatever mood we decide to be in. Generally I am upbeat and easy going. I like myself that way.With that said, and I am not proud to admit that there are times that snarky feels good for a little while. I don’t like to be in that space at all, but when I am there I can find all kinds of evidence to stay in my sarcastic mood. Equally true, I can find many reasons to be happy and grateful. It begins with a choice. I choose gratitude. Next week we will look at how choosing gratitude daily has help me to improve my physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.

What about you? Do you choose a lifestyle of gratitude today? Why not join me in making a gratitude list every day. A list of 5-10 things is a great place to start. Feel free to post your lists in the comments sections. I will post my complete list at the end of my fundraiser. In the meantime, please feel free to check my most recent updates for my running list. I would love to see the things that you are grateful for, so I really hope you will leave your lists in the comments section!

Be well until next time,

Carla