Gratitude and power, power and gratitude – yes these two words are semantically different but yet they can co-exist perfectly in one’s life and have the same meaning. I discovered the power of gratitude a few years ago and in the spring of 2019, I began practicing gratitude religiously. I read somewhere that it takes twenty-one days to form a habit.
Thus, after researching extensively on the multitude of benefits that being grateful has on the human mind and our experience of life I was determined to form this new habit.
In the beginning days, I would think of all that I was grateful for but I soon realised that if I put pen to paper and wrote it down it would feel more real. I bought myself a palm-sized book and I began to list at least five things I was grateful for daily. The more I practiced this new morning routine, the more I noticed a change in how I perceived the world and the situations in my life. How could something so simple as writing down every day – ‘I am grateful to be alive yet another day’ rewire my train of thought?
Here is what gratitude did for me. It made me see the things that were going ‘right’ in my life that had become normal and I had overlooked in my everyday routine. It made me appreciate all that I had as a human being from my ability to see, hear, speak, and taste to the fact that I was free and could choose my destiny. Take a few minutes to think of how lucky you are to be able to be reading this right now, your eyes and every cell in your body are working together to help you move and go about your day! This is definitely something to be grateful for.
Gratitude teaches us to look beyond the material and realise how rich we truly are. We are rich with health, love, freedom, and life. Being thankful every day helps you shift your thought patterns and the things you focus on and it makes you see all that you take for granted on a daily basis. The more I wrote in my gratitude journal, the more my thoughts began to become more positive.
After the twenty-one days of practicing gratitude, I noticed that throughout the day I would still find things to be grateful for. I was grateful for literally everything. I had cultivated the healthy habit of giving thanks. I was grateful for nature, for the sound of the birds in the morning, for the rain, for the clouds, for the sun. It was as though my mind had been opened to this new world where I saw the importance of every element in our lives. The rain provided water for us, the animals, and the plants – without the rain we would all be dead. Without the trees and mother nature, we would not have oxygen to breathe in. Without our healthy lungs, we would not be able to breathe in this oxygen and without the ability to breathe we would all be dead.
It is amazing to realise what a beautiful world we already live in. It is really up to the individual to choose where they focus. What you focus on grows and I am grateful to have found gratitude.
My challenge to you reader is to sit down for five minutes every day and list five things you are grateful for. You will assuredly realise that your life has an abundance of things to be thankful for.
Planting Soul Seeds 