When it first became more popular as a concept and gratitude journals started to multiply everywhere, I have to be honest, I failed to grasp the true potential of the concept.
At the time I was busy, very busy. My schedule, my mind and my heart were actually overwhelmed and numbed by the amount of plates I was juggling. At the time I was dreaming of slowing down, taking a break from some of my responsibilities as I couldn't connect to the deeper meaning of most of them.
What I couldn't actually connect with was myself. I had lost sense of my inner self, what I care about, what makes me unique but I had also disconnected with my environment, my world.
So, I was making everything else wrong as a rational explanation for my lack of connection. Sure, there was a lot that could have been better in all the aspects of my life but I forgot that there was a different place that I could be looking at for the answers, a place closer to home – inside myself.
The more I looked inside and started to appreciate again the incredible beauty that we have in ourselves, the more I started to see it outside of me, in the world and in nature all around me.
As they say, ‘what you focus on expands’. Taking moments to appreciate the simple beauty of life expanded that beauty. As mundane as it could seem, when focusing on them and their journey, a bud sprouting, a flower blooming, a bird singing became colourful notes of nature at its best. Each day, they helped to find transform very distant sounds into resonant vibrations that to this day provide joy and fulfilment.
The gift with gratitude is that it is abundant and infinite. There is no right or wrong way to feel thankful and appreciate whatever the universe is providing for us. It can be performed as a daily routine for some, a spontaneous act for others. It can be a prayer, a song, a poem that generate emotions that nourish your soul and your heart. It can even be to remember to approach each morning as a precious gift to experience more of what life has to offer, a an opportunity to begin the day anew and savour different flavours, meet new people, open up new possibilities.
Whatever it means and however we practice gratitude, it feels that the more we realise how much is right and good in the world, the more we manifest it in our present and future. I know I am grateful for all that was, all that is and all that will be in my life.