Gratitude is life-changing

Gratitude is life-changing.  All kinds of scientific evidence support the truth that gratitude is good for your mind, body, and soul, but sometimes knowing it doesn't mean experiencing it.

I could sit here and list 5 things I'm grateful for and boom be done with my "gratitude practice" for the day.  But I think that for gratitude to be truly felt, we must look for the good throughout each day, in the little moments.

When we are experiencing true gratitude for something or someone I believe that our souls are experiencing the closest thing to heaven on this side of eternity.  I remember bringing my son Landry home from the hospital just a few days after being born.  I was curled up in my bed next to him, watching him sleep, and over and over I kept saying, "Thank you, God," as tears ran down my face.  The overwhelming sense of gratitude moved me to tears because it wasn't that I was just grateful, I was fully aware of how unworthy I am.

To have been sitting there seeing a child, my child, after a three-year battle with infertility, my closeness to God became tangible. It was like in that moment, I felt so seen, and so undeserving of this incredible, miraculous gift.  It's that kind of soul-shaking gratitude that changes us, the way we live, and how we see the world.  It moves me throughout my day to look for all of the things that feel like gifts from God, from the biggest most miraculous gifts to the tiny and easily unnoticed things. 

When this practice becomes something automatic within us, I believe that we are living our best life.

We take a walk outside and notice the chirping and singing of birds and a thought turns into a prayer, "Thank you, God, for this gift of hearing your creation."

We go to dinner with a friend and instantaneously feel so grateful for connection and laughter.

We sip a coffee in the morning, grateful for warmth.

Over and over again we can find ourselves looking for the good.  And I believe it's this kind of practice that gives our lives the sweetness we long for and crave.

So tell me, look around, take a good look.  What are you grateful for?

Photo by Ivana Cajina on Unsplash