Gratitude

I promise this is not going to sound like the YouTube videos that you have watched or podcasts you have listened to about gratitude. I know people have been harping on this for a while now and I think they might be on to something. 

What if one day you woke up and you had a real “Home Alone” moment. Imagine you were Kevin and there was nobody, not a soul, in your home. You were by yourself and you look around at all the bedrooms empty with their beds dressed and all the clean dishes put away. What would you do?

In all seriousness, what if you woke up to nothing around you and you were completely alone – no bickering amongst siblings, no mom making breakfast and no dad rushing off to work complaining that he can’t find a sock. It would be lonely right? All these things we take for granted – mom preparing food and complaining about something and your siblings running around fighting over who gets the last pack of Oreos. 

Imagine a life where the sun does not rise and every day all we see is darkness and the moon (although beautiful), there is no sunshine or brightness. What if the ocean dried up and all marine life disappeared too? What if your place of work burnt to the ground and you were left jobless? What if when you look next to you and your partner is gone? 

As humans, we take things for granted all the time. Be it our nagging parents, the roof over our head and the water that comes through the tap in the convenience of your home. Its normal and natural to not be thankful every day for everything you have because when life is going good we just enjoy it and don’t really look at being thankful first. When things are bad and you are going through a rough time, it’s easy to pick out the parts of life that you didn’t notice before and linger in the negativity. 

I’m not saying become a tree hugger or some one that is now vegan or someone that lives in the mountains. I also don’t expect you to pull a Katy Perry and kiss the ground and be thankful for it. Showing gratitude goes beyond that. In my opinion I think showing gratitude involves showing respect to the multitude of things God has already provided us with. I think to show gratitude means to give thanks for what you have been blessed with because everything you have was sent to you by our creator. 

Your partner that nags about clothes lying on the floor was sent to you by God and you are a part of their lives for a reason. If your partner didn’t nag about clothes lying on the floor, the house would be filthy and untidy and not the best place to live. We also need to be respectful and mindful of our environment, for instance, don’t litter as well as be thankful and grateful for every tree you see. 

Trees are a source of oxygen, so can you imagine what would happen if we didn’t look after the tree? The same applies to our very own bodies.

Showing gratitude is the simplest way to change your perspective on life. It kind of scares you into this state of showing appreciation because after you read about it, you really reflect on yourself and your surroundings. I have watched so many videos and read so many posts about showing gratitude however I just couldn’t connect with them or doing what they told me to do felt very forced. I just wondered how do I show gratitude? Do I say thank you for everything around me? Imagine that scenario, you look at your dad every single morning and say “Thank you for still being here.” Imagine how weird and crazy that would be? You pass a tree and tell the tree “Thanks for the oxygen, man.” 

To me, when I looked at gratitude, I associated it with my behaviour towards my environment. I need to show kindness for the people around me, even when they don’t reciprocate that – I need to be kind and grateful for their presence in my life. When I look at things that I’m grateful for I look at my family, my home, my friends and so much more. I’ll be honest, I’m not actively expressing my gratitude however, it’s something I’m working on. 

It’s quite confusing to most people when they hear the word “gratitude” and also we hear it so often that when someone brings it up now we think we know what it means when we actually don’t. Being grateful every single day is difficult – if not impossible, because life happens. We have horrible days when everything goes wrong and the last thing you want to do is look on the bright side because everything seems so gloomy. Every person won’t have the mental capacity to always be optimistic and positive every single day, unless they are on schedule 5 or 6 drugs that keeps the serotonin flowing at a constant pace (highly unlikely).

Human beings are not programmed to always be happy. We have a huge array of emotions and often for through different emotions all in one day. To me, if I were to show gratitude towards the roof over my head, I would do everything I possibly can to respect my home environment by taking care of the things I have in it and be more mindful of the family I share the home with. Let’s say I want to show gratitude towards having a car, I would show my gratitude by making sure I drive carefully and take care of the vehicle in every way possible. If I want to show gratitude towards my partner, I must treat him with respect and kindness.

 Take five minutes every morning and look at everything around you such as your family, your pets, your kids and even the bed you slept on all night and be grateful that you have it. There are people out there that don’t have families, nor do they have food on most days – it’s terrible, I know. There are people without employment, money and there are also people that are confined to a bed and cannot move and enjoy the sunshine. There are people out there with no loving homes to go home to or a partner to share their day with. There are people who will go hungry tonight and in the morning. As you read this, someone is thinking about when their next meal is going to be or how will they keep the roof over their head because the rent is too expensive. There’s also someone out there that is tired of life and has contemplated taking their own life because they don’t have the support that we may have. 

You see, there’s alot to be grateful for and you don’t have to go that far to find it. I challenge you to close your eyes and imagine an empty house. I challenge you to imagine not having supper tonight or breakfast in the morning even though you are starving. Look around you, you have already been blessed with everything you need – you just need to appreciate it before it gets taken away. When you show gratitude, you focus on all the things you have and you realise, life isn’t that bad. Life isn’t as rough as you thought. Always look for the light and you will find it.

Till next time!