Last week we looked at how my lifestyle of gratitude started with a simple choice on an unlikely day. I make a choice daily to live in gratitude no matter what is happening in my life. If you read Part 1 of this series, you know that this blog topic generated from a fundraising challenge I have undertaken to support my GoFundMe Campaign. You can read my entire Gratitude Challenge Gratitude List by clicking here. In Part 1 of this series I declared that I am currently the most fit I have ever been in my life and that I attribute that in part, to my lifestyle of gratitude. Health leading to gratitude seems like a logical leap, but gratitude leading to health might require more mental gymnastics. Upon learning that I not only do I attribute my health, in part to a lifestyle of gratitude, but that I claim my personal best fitness while living with Multiple Sclerosis, most people are surprised to say the least. I live with Recurrent Remissive MS, which means that I have exacerbations, or “flare ups” that can last from a couple of days to months or longer with remissions in between. If I am in remission my symptoms may not be visible to those who don’t know what to look for. If the conversation continues, they may learn that I was angry about my diagnosis when I wasn’t in denial. When folks learn that a common question is often how I got to here from there. I don’t often speak this publicly about my MS, but it serves so well to make my point about how gratitude can lead to greatness. Let’s look at how gratitude led me to a life of peace, joy and well- being from a place of anger and

When I was first diagnosed, though grateful for a name to put with the symptoms I had had for years, I was angry that I had a diagnosis that put a name with my symptoms. I would like to say that I accepted this diagnosis and everything that came with it easily. I would love to tell readers that I immediately took as much action to insure my health as possible. I read everything I could about Multiple Sclerosis (MS), but lived as if there was not an illness impacting my body. I was determined to live as if I were stronger than my illness and I would wear it down and force it to submit. It wasn’t until I had a physical and emotional breakdown a couple of years after being diagnosed that I started to shift my thinking. Mind you at this point it didn’t shift far, but with time I did an almost 360 degree shift. With that change came, not only reduced symptoms of MS, but increased core and muscle strength, and reduced body fat.