I couldn’t feel worse and yet I’ve never been more grateful. Confused? I know I was. You see, it’s been over three weeks since I got some classic change in the weather sickness which – I’ll spare you the details – has seen me pretty much bedbound for that length of time. For those of you who know my generally healthy, energetic and active 30-year-old self, this is understandably torturous. Thankfully, however, I’ve turned a corner and I’m slowly on the up.

So why have I been oozing with gratitude during this clearly punishing time? Well while experiencing this, I just couldn’t stop thinking of all the people out there who have to deal with this type of thing a lot more often than me. Those with longer lasting symptoms, much worse diagnosis and some with devastating outcomes. That’s genuinely been at the forefront of my mind every day. This is not everyday life for me, but it is for some many others. Being who I am and feeling like I have felt has been quite the eye-opener, I am counting every one of my lucky stars and brings me to an interesting practice I’ve introduced into my life lately.

“Some days I’m thrilled about a great professional win or personal accomplishment, others it’s having a bed to crawl into at night…”

 

I regularly practice guided meditations led by the incredible David Jii as no matter what the mood, he always seems to have the perfect fix. One phrase which has stuck with me down through the years is when he spoke about “cultivating an attitude of gratitude.” There was a time when I listed ten things I was grateful for at night but just like all the good practices we try to cram into our day, it soon became like a chore and was short lived.

In a bid to tackle this, however – and is quite likely a contributing factor to why I feel how I do right now – I recently started an ‘Attitude of Gratitude’ WhatsApp group with a friend. All it entails is messaging the group every night or at least we try to, with things we are grateful for that day and it’s working a treat. The rules are simple, we don’t comment on or ever bring up the other person’s message and its completely confidential, we just send it. I think it’s the accountability element that keeps us both in line as well as it being a safe and non-judgemental space to express ourselves. Some days I’m thrilled by a great professional win or personal accomplishment, others it’s having a bed to crawl into at night, a hug I received that day or a warm meal.

One thing I know for sure is it puts everything into perspective and leaves me in a good space going to sleep at night. No matter what the day has brought, I can connect in with myself and what’s important for those few minutes and say, thank you because the likelihood is or in my case anyway, if we were to list the things we are not grateful for, our gratitude list will still likely be a hell of a lot longer. Let’s keep focusing on the good stuff.