Photo by Freshh Connection on Unsplash
When I moved to a new city in January where I knew no one, didn’t have a job and was uncertain of the next career move I wanted to make, I was a big, anxious ball of stress every morning when I woke up.
Where would I work? Who would I hang out with? I was so ready to get to the next chapter of my life that I had forgotten to enjoy this one.
Pause.
Around the same time, a flashy article titled “Which Podcast You Should Listen to Based on Your Zodiac Sign” crossed my path, and I clicked in. As a Cancer, it was recommended that I listen to Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations. In it, Oprah interviews different celebrities, authors and the like to discuss what moves them and how they connect with the world around them.
This podcast came into my life exactly when I needed it, to make me pause, reflect and be grateful for the life I live, despite all of the uncertainty.
One of the many things Oprah has since taught me is to keep a gratitude journal: To write down a few things every day that you truly are grateful for.
Pause.
How simple is that? Take maybe five to 10 minutes a day and reflect on a few good things that happened to you — as small or as large as they may be.
On hard days, my notes aren’t much — “I’m grateful to sit and enjoy this cup of coffee.” But some days they are bigger — “I’m grateful to have landed that job interview, whether or not I get the gig.”
Around the same time, I finished reading Jen Sincero’s super awesome book “You Are a Badass,” which is filled with all sorts of excellent advice, but the piece that stuck out to me most, at the time, was a chapter on gratefulness. It’s, fittingly, titled “Gratitude: The Gateway Drug to Awesomeness.”
The chapter explains how being grateful opens you up to fully experiencing life, both the big and small moments.
Pause.
It has been nine months since I moved here and finished Sincero’s life-changing book, eight months since I started keeping a gratitude journal. My life looks a lot different than it did when I moved here, but I’ve somehow managed to find a full-time job using my degree in an office environment I enjoy going to every day, and I have friends to turn to in this new city.
I write all of these things down, each and every morning (or evening if I wake up late).
The point isn’t so much what you are grateful for as it is the act of writing it down: Of sitting down and reflecting on what makes your life as it is right now so wonderful. There is always something.
And when you adopt this mindset, even if it’s just for five minutes a day, it starts to seep into the rest of your life.
Somehow, things are working out, and maybe they would have either way, but stumbling upon Sincero’s book and Oprah’s podcast sure make me better appreciate where I am now.
“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.”
— Anthony Robbins
Editor(s): Daniel Watson
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