If there’s anything the past year has taught me, it is the act of gratitude.
I can not count how many times I fell deep into depression and got swallowed up in anxiety and worry the whole of last year. During those times, nothing ever made any sense.
Even when I can confidently say I’ve been quite lucky and everything was aligning. Yet I still found a way to be miserable. The turning point came when I realized that there wasn’t anything wrong with the way things were.
They were exactly how they should be. I realized I had been the selfish and ungrateful one. Instead of focusing on the positive things in my life, I rather dwelt on the negative. Beating myself up about what should have been thereby dragging myself into a constant state of worry, anxiety, and depression.
You’ll only be doing yourself a favour this year if your watchword is gratitude. Gratitude takes your mind off the things that are yet to happen to the ones that are happening and those that already happened. That way, you stay ever joyful and thankful. Your gratitude also releases those blessings you’ve been expecting. So that they take you by surprise.
Gratitude keeps you focused on the tasks at hand. Worry does not get the job done, gratitude does. During those times I was deep into my ingratitude, and I lost the drive to thrive. I couldn’t write. Everything seemed blank. All I did was think and think and think. My thinking didn’t yield anything productive. I only wasted the little time I had to work on my goals.
Gratitude relieves you of enormous stress, heartache, and bitterness. There is this freedom that comes with knowing that you will always be taken care of. It’s the feeling you get while walking through a garden of white roses in the sunset. It is the feeling I get when I watch little children play in the rain.
Come what may, mama will certainly take care of them. This new year, our response to challenges should always be, come what may, we will always be taken care of. I learned the act of gratitude late last year and I’m better for it. It was an experience I will forever be grateful for. Now I appreciate even the smallest things.
When you are grateful, you learn to give out more. You learn to appreciate everyone, even the mallam selling suya down the street. You become more aware of the positive nature of your friends and family rather than the negative. When you are grateful, the air smells cleaner and fresher and you can thrive!!
Happy new year and don’t forget to be grateful!!
