Sooo Grateful!!!

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I know that I live a good life. For that I am grateful to my husband, my parents, my children my friends. spirituality, life...

I have become aware that gratitude is a practice. The more I notice reasons to be grateful, the more grateful and happier I become. And it is such an easy thing to do, when you pay attention. Having a drink of cold water on a hot day is a huge thing to be grateful for. A comfortable place to sleep, enough food to eat, people to share a meal with. If I pay attention to everything I can be grateful for in a day, I am overwhelmed.

Living in Calgary, Canada in the winter is not always something people are grateful for. Growing up, I used to wish I lived in Vancouver or somewhere in California or Hawaii. It would be nice to live somewhere where the temperature never reaches minus 30 degrees celsius! And now that I am older, I can't imagine being more grateful for where I live. Every day that I drive my kids to school or hockey, I drive through the beautiful landscape to the west of Calgary, facing the pristine Rocky Mountains. I pass by large fields of grassland with cows or horses. The clear blue sky kisses the horizon line and it seems I could want for nothing more.

Is my life perfect - of course not. That is not something that anyone can boast of, nor should even aspire to. But even in the most challenging times of my life, there have been many things for me to be grateful for and I believe that to be true for everyone.

I believe practicing gratitude on a continual basis is one of the surest, easiest ways to improve your happiness in life. A few years ago, I started a gratitude journal (I got the idea from Oprah so it was bound to be good). Every day, I write 5 things that I am grateful for. On some of my worst days, I may list going to bed as something I am grateful for. On other days, I will write more than 5 items because I can't contain my gratitude to such a small list. This practice forces me to be aware of the many blessings in my life.

I challenge you to keep a gratitude journal for 3 weeks. Let me know how your experiment goes. I believe it will improve your happiness and the quality of your life. What do you have to lose other than a couple of minutes each day? Try it - you'll like it!

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