In my quest for “re-youth” I remind myself a few times of day to be grateful for…everything. I’m pretty good at writing & mailing real thank you cards whenever the kids or I get a gift…i.e a physical item to touch. Where I lack in my gratefulness is in much smaller, yet bigger things.
For starters, my husband does plenty for me, for the kids and for the house, yet I lack in saying thank you for the completed tasks. I “think” about saying thank you many times for…cleaning, changing diapers, paying the mortgage, hugging me, and mostly putting up with my stubbornness….but I know I don’t say that I am grateful enough. I am grateful for you Luke.
I am grateful for my parents who provided all they possibly could for me, at all times and in all things put us kiddos first in all they did (and still do). For my mom who listens the best and makes everything fun, like really silly-giggly unforgettably fun for all ages,and my dad who inspires my love for big life changing projects, manual labor, and witty sense of humor. I am grateful for you Rhonda and Gary Sell
After seeing Goldie Hawn on the Doctor Oz show a few days back, I was motivated to start a gratitude list. Check. Soon, check check! I try to spend five minutes a day, adding to the list of things I am blessed with, and plan to be ever thanking people at all times. Goldie explained how sadness/depression changes the make-up of your brain, it physically changes when you boost your mood. I am grateful for that. SMILE
“Keep a gratitude journal to note what you are grateful for. Expressing gratitude has profoundly proven to boost your happiness level and change your state of mind.” – Goldie Hawn
I think of all the Missed Thank you’s when I hear this Song : Jimmy Eat World-Hear You Me
“Gratitude is always an option. Matthew Henry, a famous scholar, was accosted by thieves and robbed of his purse. He wrote this in his diary: ‘Let me be thankful first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, although they took my all, it was not much; an fourthly, because it was I who was robbed not I who robbed.” —Max Lucado
I like the last quote a lot. Being grateful is really a change of perspective. Just like with photography, perspective can mean the difference between a good or great photo… a good or great life. Ever since I heard the Franklin Covey story (see below) I have begun thinking more about perspective and how it can drastically changes your actions and thoughts.
I am grateful for you as well.
Covey has the best example of a paradigm shift: he was traveling in a subway, a man gets in with his two sons, the sons are running all over the place bothering the people, this continues, so he finally gets irritated enough to ask the father why he doesn’t do something to control his kids. The father replies, “We just got back from the hospital where their mother died. I don’t know how to handle it and I guess they don’t either.”
Suddenly you see the everything differently. That is the power of a paradigm shift. They are the same kids yelling and screaming in the subway, but you look at them and understand them in a different way.