Gratitude. It’s a Must.
Mt- Tremblant, QC. What took me so long! Guys, let me tell you, it is stunning! The hills, though modest, are gleaming through my French doors. The ice and snow covered lake cuts through the ridges like a smooth rip.
What took me so long?
Behind me, inside, two generations of my cousins are hunkering down to needed tasks; one remotely logged into her Toronto office, another cycling through final preps for her Army aptitude tests, and yet another lays surrounded by sheets in bed, or maybe she’s texting away. With teens one never knows!
I am grateful.
How can I not be?! My life explodes with positivity. I am with family in a majestic place. I can close my eyes and race through memories of my friends and project winning situations with my work and business colleagues. Life is incredible. This is how it should be.
I, by no stretch, possess a wealth of material goods, but my gratitude is rooted in my deep respect for values that transcend time. The value of family. The value of friendship. The value in serenity. Inner strength, confidence, self awareness, self respect, love and passion.
Are you grateful? Can you list the values in your life? If you can, then great! Feel that gratitude and get lost in it. Nurture it and share it. It’s ok however if you struggle in unearthing your gratitude. If you do, I believe I can help you connect with it.
Try this:
1) Go somewhere quiet. Away from any negative influence. A place of peace.
2) Close your eyes. ( BUT read the following steps before you do close your eyes
)
3)Breathe slowly and, sure! Count from 1-10
4) Smile, Smile harder, SMILE
5) Laugh. Laugh. Just Laugh and keep Laughing ( Remember you are alone so just go ahead and Laugh)
6) Stop laughing and watch. Just sit in peace.
7) Open your eyes.
You’re there now. Do you feel that? That’s the start of gratitude.
That’s the start of an emotion that is a Must. A beginning from which emerges the strands of trust, happiness, peace, self worth, respect. Strands which emerge and bind together to create your character.
Without gratitude, without that starting point, this igniting emotion; good is not possible. The mind can easily become wrought with regret, hate, despair. Too easily. But gratitude can keep these ill sentiments at bay. And, like anything else, to maintain a state of gratitude, one must first make conceiving and embracing it a habit.
So, if you liked how that simple exercise made you feel then commit it to memory. Do it when the chance arises. Make gratitude the emotion you retire to bed with, and that emotion which puts a smile on your face as you open your eyes in the morning.
It’s a Must.
© Danylo Murrell 2013








