Cosmetic P.
Thinking of the number of times I laugh or smile in a day shows me I experience joy in my life so there should never be a reason for me to harp on the bad things or uglier parts of life. There is so much to be grateful for. I like to start with the basics. I’m grateful for waking up, seeing my cats every day, going to a job where I can both have fun and be a productive team member, and come home to a quiet clean house. If I can achieve those things each day, I am grateful.
Robyn N.
I know it might sound odd, but a big reminder to me daily for staying grateful is I lost a fair amount of friends & family while young. It hurt so bad for such a long while, & I was so angry because being only in my 20’s..it didn’t make sense to me for my best friends to leave me so suddenly, or for strokes of fate to have taken some members of my family away when they were in good health still. My mental health was not the best at all before this, & had been declining to the point of suicidal ideations again when I had lost my best friend to the same problem we had both been suffering. I felt as if I had been so blinded by my own depression/anxiety disorder that I was useless to have been a good friend & help them..& not long after two close aunts & this just furthered my belief at the time that life was dreadful no matter what at that moment. But..it was also a big eye opener for me that I had to choose a different path than my friend had if I wanted to survive & get healthy..I had started taking medications that we both had shunned initially, started therapy & some other self work. I also started working more on my gratitude journaling then..& taking time to enjoy the small things that I loved in life even if I could no longer share it with a few of my fave people anymore. Eventually I came to the realization that they no longer had the choice to choose a daily happiness to be grateful for no matter how small but I still did..they had moved on but I was still here & as a human that is alive my basic right is to enjoy the life I do have. It may not always be the perfect life everyday, I’m definitely not happy at every moment, especially having a mood disorder it can sometimes be hard to consistently choose to be happy..but that is still my choice & I can always have the option to be grateful for it at the very minimum & keep working on it daily.
