Thoughts on Gratitude
The consensus on 2020 and 2021 is that both years have been terrible. I mean, seriously, who can say with a straight face that they’ve had a good past two years? And if you do, can you tell me what your secret is? Not only have these past two years been terrible, but they’ve also been unexpectedly chaotic. I think I speak for more than just myself when I say that being grateful for anything these last two years has felt nearly impossible.
A while ago, far before the pandemic even started, I remember my now brother-in-law posting something on his Instagram sharing how each day he’d write three things he was grateful for, and at the end of every month, he’d pull the highlights and make them into a list. It sounds super cheesy, I know. But I was incredibly challenged when I saw that, so I decided to take it on and begin doing that. So for three months at the end of every day, I’d take inventory of what I was grateful for. Naturally, some days it was easy to come up with what I was grateful for, and other days felt like there was nothing ever in the universe to be grateful for. Emo? Maybe a little. Regardless, I persisted.
After a few months of doing this, my life got very busy, and I fell out of the habit of going out of my way to find things to be grateful for. About a year later, I’m trying to get back into the routine of finding things to be grateful for every day, and here’s why:
As college students, most of whom I’m assuming is also working in some way as well as trying to maintain friendships, relationships, and physical/mental health, it’s very easy to be caught in the waves of busyness that rush over us, and those waves of busyness generally tend to last a while. It’s so easy to get lost in the chaos of my world and make sure I complete all the things on my checklist. As a pretty compartmentalized person, I usually forget to take care of my spirit and body to maintain all my obligations. This pretty much always burns me out and gives me a crappy attitude! So going out of my way to find things to be grateful for grounds me and is a practical way I can adjust my attitude so that I’m not living begrudgingly.
I don’t want to go on a rant about how social media causes everyone to compare lives, because I get so annoyed hearing that speech all the time, so I’ll spare both of us. I will simply say that when we do have access to see almost everyone’s lives, being grateful for the little and big things in our own lives helps protect us from jealousy and the like.
There are a lot of other things I can say, but instead of trying to convince you to do something you might not want to do, here are the things I’m grateful for today: Lafa, Spotify, gel pens, headphones, physical newspapers, Do Not Disturb.
Image obtained from Squarespace
