What does gratitude look like to you? Do you ever stop and think about your life and be grateful or do you stop and look at your life and see all the things you don’t have?
As I look back over my life and see all that has happened to me, I could be full of regret and for a very long time, that is exactly how I felt. I felt like my life had been wasted. Even as I began to write this blog, which began back in October last year, I saw my life as such a waste.
I have lived with so much regret and the reality of this is, by living that way, I have not been grateful for all the wonderful things I have experienced. I have paid more attention to those things that have robbed me of joy than those that have brought me joy. If you have read my blog from the start (which is the story of my life) you will see a whole lot of negative experiences, pain and sadness at what I have felt is a life wasted. However, my life has also been full and joyful along the way.
I am who I am today because of all those experiences good and bad. I have learned from them. I feel like writing this blog has really helped me to see how important it is to be people who stop and take time to recognize all those little things and sometimes big things that bring us joy. The negative can so easily overshadow the positive.
It can be as simple as the example below.
The picture up today is of Nobby’s Light House here in my home town. Monday and Tuesday this week I was involved in a training course on Mental Health which was held at a venue right on the beach. It was absolutely freezing. The venue was a Surf Life Saving Club and not really winter friendly. The weather bureau described the weather on these days as a “Polar Blast” – I don’t think I need to explain further. We froze for the best part of both days. However, as we were training we could look out of the windows to see this view. I could so easily have not even noticed it because the course content was intense and I was really cold. However, I took a moment (actually many moments) and was grateful that I had this view, grateful that I live in this amazing city with such incredible views and with a ‘gale force wind’ blowing grateful that I was out of the wind.
We need to be so careful not to fall in to comparison. There is danger in comparing our lives to the lives of those around us. Comparison inevitably leads to regret.
Be grateful for what you have and not what you have missed out on. Be grateful for the people you have surrounding you. Life is difficult enough without living with regret.
Can I encourage you today to start one little exercise – write down one thing you are grateful for in each day. You can put it in a journal or on a piece of paper and keep it in a jar. Then at the beginning of next year, instead of seeing only the negative things – take out your journal or your gratitude jar and read about all the things you were grateful for.
Captivating Freedom 