The daily practice which helped change my life...
I remember commuting on the busy tube to Blackfriars one day when I had a familiar sense of dread about going into the office and doing another day in my soul-sucking job. I remember looking around and noticing how everyone was on their phone, probably thinking something similar and I had the thought, I don't want to keep feeling this way.
So, out of nowhere I took out my phone and went into my notes tab and started writing everything and anything I was grateful for. I didn't stop until it was my stop.
What was funny is how my list just kept coming. Slowly at first, once I had covered my main loves, then everything I noticed in the carriage around me, and everything that I get to do in my day. Then, before long, I realised I could literally think of anything, and every thing, every one, any where, tied to any memory and any place. Gratitude is all around if I choose to find it.
It changed something in me. That day, my dream of building a business felt more tangible. Little did I know I would soon be entering a global pandemic, quitting my job, building a business and moving to the other side of the world within 2 years or so. You see, we never know what tomorrow may bring, but we have the power in this moment to be grateful for all that we have right now.
That wasn't the first time I had practiced giving gratitude, but it was one of the most profound memories I had of that practice. Why? Because it taught me that even in the most mundane of moments, when I have a very good reason (in my mind) to feel crap about something, it is in fact, always a choice.
Gratitude teaches us that we create our experience.
Gratitude teaches that we are powerful beyond measure.
Gratitude teaches us that even on a busy London tube at 7.30am, you can still find the joy, love and beauty in the world.
If that isn't a practice worth keeping in your day, then I don't know what is.