Dear readers, I hope your new year has started off great and you are enjoying the beginning of the second month of the year! Well, in most part of the world, if not all; the winter already has had at its peak and with the Arctic blast happening recently, our southern state of Texas in the United States of America also experienced below freezing temperatures! In fact our school was out on the Tuesday after the MLK day off on Monday due to Bad Weather Day, so we had an extended long weekend. This sentiment, along with this being my 1st blog article in this new year, has made me write this post where I hope to motivate others (& myself) about how grateful I am each and every day. I just need to pause and do that often!
Attitude of Gratitude
Such a simple truth of life- if you want to be happy in life, practice gratitude! Everyone can develop this habit of being grateful. Every one of us have so many things in life we take for granted. We chase after things we do not have, but seldom are thankful for all those things we already have. Gratitude is just that- pausing in the present, looking around and being thankful for all the things we already have. A family that loves and cares for you, friends that make your life a little better, good health to enjoy the small things in life, a job or career you got your education in or pursued, a home that gives you warmth at the end of each day, and the beautiful feeling that all is well! So dear readers, if you want to have just a tad bit more happiness in life, practice gratitude!
Related post: How to keep your bucket full
Have you heard about filling your bucket? For those who may have not, keeping yourself full of hope, joy, positivity and encouragement is filling up your own bucket and so when it pours over you spread the same around you. Some days your bucket may be draining or you may be around people who have drained buckets or who may drain your own bucket. So being deliberate and purposefully filling your bucket is very important. You not only may be helping yourself, but also may be helping others who may need some hope, joy, love and positivity. Practicing an attitude of gratitude will always help you keep your bucket full. Being aware of all good things in life and not looking at what-nots can be very powerful.
It is important to acknowledge that not all days are same. Everyone gets disappointments or failures in life. But the understanding that this too shall pass is the key. Being realistic and accepting of what all comes our way, and knowing that there is a silver lining in every cloud; can help us go through every moment with grace and surrender. Finding a balance in our life is extremely hard but the efforts make the life worthwhile. Happiness and sadness are nothing but the state of mind, and once we are able to control our mind things fall in perspective and makes so much sense. Being grateful is one such powerful tool to tame our mind to see positive and gear ourselves towards hope and immeasurable strength.
Related post: How to live a balanced life
Gratitude in 2020 & now in 2024
Finding gratitude in any situation is a habit that has to be practiced and developed. I am no expert, but when I write motivational posts like this, it helps me reflect and motivates me to dig deeper. 2020 was a hard year hit by COVID and that was the year I started my blog dawnandhope.com. January 12th was my 1st blog post and I had started with 10 blog posts that month. I wrote 3 blog posts in February. In March I ended with 5 posts, 3 of which were after the pandemic hit. I had just returned back from a school field trip over the weekend on Sunday, and just before the Spring Break our school gave us a holiday on March 13th, 2020 which made March 12th the last day of in-person class for 2019-2020 school year for all students in our district, state and may be country wide. I wrote posts on “a time to unwind” and “learning curve” about my experience as the pandemic was spreading in March. After that each month, from April to December, I wrote a post weekly consistently while I was trying to balance home and work as an educator in the year of the pandemic. One such post was a gratitude post at the end of the year, where surprisingly I had listed my many reasons for gratitude for 2020. Now that I think and reflect back, with so much chaos and uncertainty going on in the world and our home/families, if I had jotted down reasons to be grateful then; I definitely have more reasons to be grateful today, grateful now! My gratitude then included family health, growth in faith, our jobs, kids doing well academically and socially, fostering and blogging experiences, family and friends love and support, and my older one’s college acceptance, to name a few. Today I am grateful for each of the above and more.
Ways to practice gratitude:
Below are some ways we try to practice gratitude in our daily lives-
- Volunteer
Animal shelters (Friends for Life, Special pals), Houston Food bank, non profit service organization (Sewa).
Read: our volunteering experiences
2. Journaling
We use GLAD (a sentence about what you are grateful for, something you have learned today, something you have accomplished today and delight of the day) or simply write 3 things we are grateful for, nightly.
Read: 50 journal prompts for self-reflection
3. Fostering
We have been fostering dogs and cats since 2016 and this has given us so much love, affection and hope.
Read: Our fostering experiences
4. Spreading cheer
By being positive and hopeful, we try to treat everyone with love and respect.
5. Celebrating small things
We try to celebrate small things especially of our kids. We may eat out, go for a movie, buy something, write encouraging notes- anything to celebrate small successes.
6. Travel often
As a travel enthusiast family, we try making memories by traveling far and wide. We try to travel 1-2 times every year with both kids.
7. Value time together as a family or friends circle
It is very important to not take things for granted. We try to remember this and value each other at home and with friends and extended family.
8. Be humble and kind
Compassion and empathy are traits that make us better and the world around us better too. We try to teach our kids by modeling our behavior and accepting our mistakes when we make one.
Summary
To summarize, there are hundreds of way to practice gratitude. When we pause and reflect, we find tons of things to be grateful for, even in the midst of chaos and confusion sometimes. This is definitely a work in progress and posts like this make me do exactly that. I love this saying- connect to everything, attach to nothing! Dear readers, do share how you practice gratitude on a regular basis.
