I have been reminded lately of just how intense the power of gratitude really is and I wanted to share this attitude of gratitude with you today.

Giving thanks and being grateful is not something that is new to me, in fact I have been ‘counting my blessings’ since I was old enough to do this. My mum instilled the power of gratitude inside of me from a very, very young age and I have carried it with me ever since. We always gave thanks for the food we had everyday before we ate it and every year at Christmas Mum would give me a “Gratitude Diary” that she used to make herself with fun family pictures alongside little love notes from her with instructions to write down 5 things I was grateful for everyday. It could be anything from having a roof over my head to passing an exam at school or not missing the bus (which I was renowned for doing). I still have all of these old childhood gratitude diary’s and when I reflect on them and read all the creative things I wrote down as a child it brings warmth to my heart and tears to my eyes as I know not everyone had a childhood as fortunate as mine and it still pains me to think of all the suffering that goes on in on this planet today.  However I was so fortunte that Mum showed me gratitude, something that would become a very powerful tool in my own personal healing journey throughout my life.

 

Even though I have always had a gratitude practice it was always through the eyes of a child and I never really stopped and thought about the enormous power that lies in counting ones blessings and living life with an appreciative and open heart. It was not until I became an emotionally wounded adult seeking help, guidance and support that I fully realized what an intense power gratitude brings us in our own personal healing and how this simple remedy can in fact, change our lives.

This knowing came into light for me through the teachings of one of my all time, hands down favourite teachers, Caroline Myss. Through her work she explains that gratitude and appreciation doesn’t really count when everything is going smoothly in your life. It is easy to see the blessings on a perfect summers day when your at the beach with your friends and everything is just hunky dory. Myss believes that gratitude only counts when you are down in your own darkness and can barely see or feel the light around you, that’s when we really feel the enormous powerful healing benefits behind appreciation and giving thanks.

I experienced this first hand a few years ago. I had gone through an enormously painful experience in my life and I felt broken on all levels. My physical health was completely unbalanced and I could not walk on my own (literally because I had a broken foot).  Emotionally I was a mess and the ‘black night of the soul’ kind of darkness had set in, I barely saw any light around me. It was confronting, scary as hell and deeply painful. Then after talking to my Mum one evening on Skype she rattled off a list of things I had to be grateful for and in an instant I felt better. So during this painful time in my life I returned to my childhood practices of writing down 5 things I was grateful for everyday and in my darkest hours I fully realized the enormous powerful healing potential of having gratitude.  I realised that when we get knocked off centre by life’s cosmic curveballs it can be hard to see the blessings around us and sometimes we even forget.  But gratitude has a lightness that it sheds within us and reminds us of all we have to be appreciative for.

In a moment of darkness this appreciation becomes a lifeline; a small little opening where the light can re-enter us.

I am grateful for my familyIt is easy to see the ‘good’ when things are great, smooth and flowing in our lives but when you can find the ‘good’ in the darkest, hardest and most challenging days then that simple thought and recognition can yield powerful shifts on a energetic and cellular level in our biochemistry. It has the potential to assist in our healing and lead us closer into restoring balance and finding the peace and love within us again.

[Tweet “You have so much to be grateful for”]

You know how to read for starters as you are reading this blog, and you have a computer or smart phone in which you are reading this on, another thing to be grateful for.  It just flows and flows and flows….

Please take the time to appreacite and give thanks for the wonderful world that is around you and within you; the smile of a stranger, finding a parking space on a busy day in the middle of a city, beautiful family and friends that warm your heart and make your life that little bit more magic and juicy.

So I ask you….

What 5 things are you grateful for in your life today?

Let me know in the comments below as I would love to hear your gratitude stories and prayers.

I will leave you with some beautiful words that Adabella Radici wrote,

“As each day comes to us refreshed and anew, so does my gratitude renew itself daily. The breaking of the sun over the horizon is my grateful heart dawning upon a blessed world.”

Today I am grateful for you,

 

 

PS.  I was fortunate enough to come by a beautiful Lady named Emily who asked me to be a part of her online Gratitude Journals project, (where this pic of me is from) She has such a cute site and concept, check it out here and submit your own story.

If you want to listen to one of my Hero’s Caroline Myss talk about Gratitude check out this video here