Gratitude

I recently read an article about gratitude. It suggested that not only does gratitude increase self esteem, but it also improves your health and helps you cope better with past traumatic events.

I do a lot to feel gratitude. It's part of most every project I do. The Artist's Way, 100 days, it's honestly in every day of my life. It has not always been this way though. I used to have the "why me" complex. Felt like everyone and everything was against me. Like I was oh so important that everyone would be focused in on me... in a bad way. I did not consciously change that thinking. I just began to express and feel gratitude and it washed away. Pretty cool.

I work with a person who is totally focused on himself. Nothing goes his way and it's all a complete conspiracy. I can't even imagine how deeply miserable he is. It's very frustrating for me to even hold a conversation with him, and after months of trying to get him to see all that is good, I have given up. I do not let him bring me down. I simply stay away.

I think that sometimes we have to put up these barriers. I let in those that are good at their core (not to say they don't have trials), and those that are nowhere near where I want to be emotionally-- I shut them out. In the Christian religion, it's stated that two of the same beliefs shall be yoked together... basically that if your belief is strong, do not closely tie yourself with a nonbeliever or they will drag you down. I am not a religious person, but I am totally down with that concept.

I recently have grown very close to my sister in law. Our religious beliefs vary greatly, but our spiritual and emotional beliefs mesh completely. In her, I have found a friend, a sister, almost as if we share the same soul at times. I am grateful to my brother every day for bringing her into my life. And I am grateful for the little things... text messages, cell phone call plans, snail mail, every possible way I could communicate with her. Not a day goes by that we do not make contact.

I hope that we can all feel gratitude. That we allow ourselves to relish the joy in our lives, and to be grateful for little things when the big picture is not perfect.