“It’s not easy being grateful all the time.
But it’s when you feel least thankful that you
are most in need of what gratitude can give you.” - Oprah
When I was living in Toronto, and was working full time, the way I dealt with my problems or issues were using the words, "Forget it!" or "I'm too busy to even worry about that" or, "I have no time". When my family moved here to Yellowknife, my issues were a lot different than before, not only that they were so different, I have all the time in the world to think, to worry, and to feel them. So there are times I do feel less thankful, and maybe when you feel the least thankful, maybe these can help you. I practice this everyday. There are times that I forget and that happens, I try not to fret but instead I just continue on with my day thinking of how to make the day much better than yesterday.
So here:
1. When you get up in the morning, notice your feet, your hands, your whole body. Be thankful you are still alive. Smile right away.
2. Acknowledge yourself. Feel the energy. Fuel that energy with love and high spirit that you can give to others, whether at home or at work, or to some random people you may encounter during the day. I give my love and energy to my boys.
3. Say grace before meal. Be grateful of the abundance that is given to you through God's blessing. I love it when after every time we say grace before meal, my youngest Jesse says "Eating time!"
4. Look at your own life. Examine it. Know that everyone makes mistakes, but what makes the difference is learning the lesson and improving from it. You can never feel better comparing your own life to others. They too have problems you are not even aware of and sometimes they do not even know is coming. Same as you.
5. Feed your hunger for excellence even if it just means taking time to read a good book or doing the crossword puzzles. I write. And I do volunteer work.
6. Practice kindness. When you do, people notice and remember and then as you are spreading kindness, you feed from the kindness that comes back. Sometimes it comes back, but sometimes it does not. But when it does come back, it comes back in doubles.
7. Give love. You can give love even through email. I give love through hugs. I mostly give them to my boys. We do a lot of group hugs.
8. Be inspired. I remember how shopping makes me feel excited. And I realized that although shopping helped me to have a good day, it is not my source of inspiration. Rather, it was my addiction. Words of wisdom are truly one of the sources of my inspirations. The words I read, my spirit feeds on them and after writing them down, after I have expressed my thoughts, I feel content. I feel that I am satisfied.
9. Do not be attached or fixated on material things. Remember that their value depreciates, and goes out of style. You, your spirit, your value should never be based on what you have or what you own. Remember that everything can be lost in a blink of an eye especially at this time of economic uncertainty.
10. Shift your mindset. Do something else out of your routine, sometimes even out of your comfort zone. When you find yourself going to the computer and it depresses you, then stop. Watch a funny movie. Or when you feel you are starting to feel down, or lousy, or depressed, take a run, a walk or jog. Sometimes, a distraction helps. One night, I was writing and my husband came into the room I said, "Oh you are a distraction." He said, "I thought I was an inspiration." I said, "No. Not this time. But being a distraction is not bad. Not at all." I stopped and put my journal down. I turned to him as he lay down on my side, and curled right next to him with a smile. On my journal, the last words I had written were, "I am such a sad woman..." and I never got to continue that piece.
And for something extra. Always leave something extra in case of emergencies, right? Or when everything else has been tried and exhausted.
11. Say a prayer. Notice your breath. Give thanks to the Lord, for all His blessings, His undying love, for keeping you healthy and safe, for keeping your loved ones healthy and safe, and for keeping you --- that you are ready to face another day.
