Count Your Blessings

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”―Melody Beattie

It is quite easy to get caught and lost in the busyness of life and the difficult situations we are to deal with. These things can cause us to live in a constant, gloomy mood and a sense that things will remain the same forever: we feel stuck and desperate.

However, despite all the calamities that life might bring, it also has a bright, agreeable side. Problems or situations we must solve are part of life; we can shift our focus from them when it is not the set time to deal with them. And this shift brings ease, peace of mind and joy in our life.

How can we shift our focus from gloom and doom to peace and joy?—Just by being grateful, which means counting the good things in our life, however small they may be, and feeling blessed because of them. It is rightly said that there is always, always, always something to be grateful for.

Right now, you can be grateful for your eyes: they are allowing you to read these words. Our life is precious and unique, and you can give thanks for that. You can be thankful for the wonderful parts of your body, having food on your table, being able to think and feel… the list is endless.

Being grateful for all the good in our life does not mean we ignore the matters we must deal with. Being thankful means we know there are good things in this life, not only challenging circumstances. And these challenges are surely blessings in disguise. They manifest in our way to help us grow and become better and more mature individuals. We can be thankful for them too. One day when we look back on our life, we will understand that they were not in vain; they happened because we needed them to become more fulfilled or ready to fulfill our mission in life.

So, let us remember to always count our blessings and live in a state of awe and grace, for life is on our side.

“Gratitude is one of the sweet shortcuts to finding peace of mind and happiness inside. No matter what is going on outside of us, there’s always something we could be grateful for.”—Barry Neil Kaufman