If You Want To Be Happy, Practice Gratitude.

Love and appreciate what you already have and far more blessings will follow.

A lot of us fall into the overwhelming cycle of chasing the next shiny thing and never really pausing to appreciate what’s in front of us. Whether you are a parent, an over achiever, a business owner, a spouse or even a student, the pressure of performing up to your expectations and those of others is stressful.

I am here to tell you that you don’t have to live in a world of expectations. Instead, switch over to a world of gratitude in which things are slower, you get to enjoy everything you have forever as long as they exist, you are more aware of the beauty of life and things have never tasted as good, your mind is more open and in tune with your body.

Let me tell you how my world of gratitude is set up. I have actually never shared it with anybody or put any words to describe it as I am about to do it now. My friends would probably describe me as very positive, happy, lovy dovy person and I come across as very vulnerable for some, and genuine. I have even been referred to as the “hippie” of the group before. Although I get stressed and overwhelmed more often than what it appears to be, this is what helps me radiate love with people around me:

1. There’s not a single day when I don’t thank God for life. I pray for every single names that I can remember when I lie down on my pillow at night. Best believe that if I speak to you today, I will probably pray for you at night and thank God for putting you in my world because I know you’ve impacted me. I’ve been doing this since I can even remember. It started out as a fear of losing the people I love so I turned it into gratitude.
2. I meditate. For 20+ minutes, I shut down the world around me and I focus on every single parts of my body that I can name. I am hyper aware of my body and everything that it is capable of doing. For example, when I focus on my legs I am so grateful for having them. They allow me to go places that I love, discover the world, give me the strength to carry my daughter, jump, run, dance and I can go on and on. Let me know in the comment if you’d want me to share more about meditation and how exactly you can do it. I am very passionate about this topic because it’s very liberating. Believe it or not, not a lot of people can sit down for 20+ minutes and do nothing.
3. I am vulnerable and don’t hesitate to share love with people around me. If you’ve done something good for me, I’ve probably mentioned it to you. This goes beyond the fact that I say “I love you” to my husband and daughter all day long. For my birthday I sent out a long message to my in laws to say how much I appreciate them in my life and the fact that I have always dreamed of having such a beautiful family.

Obviously I get trapped into the cycle of life and chasing the next thing over and over again because that’s just the world in which we live in. I lose myself for some time and then remember that the next thing is not what matters the most, it really is what you have in front of you: your child, health, a job, love, a friend, a bed, some food, access to clean water etc. There’s something liberating about acknowledging the simplest things in life and the more appreciative you are of what you have, the more love you’ll pour into it. That love is what should fuel our lives, and not the next beautiful shiny status or object: If you are grateful for your health, you’ll care for your body and likely exercise and eat right which will result into so many benefits beyond physical. I’ll let you draw the same conclusion for all other aspects of your life and hope to live you with some food for thoughts.

Practice Gratitude Sticker on my Etsy Store