Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Gratitude

As a follow up to yesterday's post, The Monday Blues, today's post will focus on gratitude.

Yesterday we whined. Today we will be thankful.



No one can be happy all the time. We will always have our moments, or a series of moments, when life has us run down. In the midst of those moments it is easy to find ourselves feeling frustrated and being flooded with negative thoughts. It is a well known secret that our thoughts directly impact our emotions.

By changing our thinking we can change our outlook on the world, and in turn, we can change our life! 

After a rather rough start on Monday morning, I changed my thinking and over the course of the day good things began to happen. When I am in a rut, I stop and think about all of the things in my life for which I am most thankful.

Here is my list, in no particular order..

My Husband
My Children
My Mother
My Sisters
My Family
My relationship with God
My real life friends
My 'twitter friends'
A healthy family
A beautiful home
A stable job
My education
Freedom

I could go on and on listing the material possessions that I am thankful for, but mostly I am thankful for the wonderful people in my life and for the things that you can't put a price tag on.

The amazing thing about gratitude is that when you are grateful for the blessings in your life, more and more blessing will be given to you. Before you can get what you most desire in life, you must be grateful for what you already have.

What are you thankful for? I invite you to comment on this post and share your thoughts.

9 comments:

MamaOnDaGo said...

I'm thankful for a number of things. I forget all too often how truly blessed I am. I have to constantly remind myself of the many things I have.

Julie S. said...

I am thankful for my husband, who works so hard so that I can stay home with my amazing little man. I am thankful for my family, friends, my cozy bed, coffee, my health, and 100's more!

Anonymous said...

I try to be thankful everyday, even for the littlest things - somedays I look up and am just thankful for a blue sky. Gratitude truly does improve your entire outlook on life!
Jillian K Thomas

Devan @ Accustomed Chaos said...

I am thankful for my children. It was not easy & I am thankful that we are able to have me be a stay at home mom ♥

Anonymous said...

All too true! I got through losing my Prince Charming divorcing me by focusing on the blessings in my life and being thankful for all those silver linings in the clouds!

Lindsay said...

Thanks everyone for sharing what you are grateful about! Jillian is right - it really does improve your outlook on life! No matter how difficult things may seem, there are many blessing in our lives. We just need to be smart enough to recognize them!

Heidi said...

I'm thankful for my husband, kids, family and the ability to exercise and run. On a long run over the weekend, I was incredibly thankful for a breeze that hit me when I changed directions. Sometimes it is the little things.

Ken Levinson said...

Lindsay, your outlook is one that I wish more people, especially parents, shared.

Being overly concerned with the past and the future does us little good because those two variables are out of our control. The past can't be changed and the future has yet to be written.

People are too stressed out over what is and what is to be. The best they can do is prepare for the worst, prevent accidents and love and appreciate their lives and families now.

With that being said, I am grateful for my sons, my wife, my career and the opportunity I've been given to promote child safety.

Jane in AUSTRALIA said...

Lets see...what am I grateful for?
1. This post for what it reminded me to be/do
ALSO: health, happiness, family, friends, my laptop, my iphone, my car, to be able to see, hear, think, smell roses, freshbread, for freedom, for safety, for oh well so many things.

thanks for the post.
Jane

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