Staying Thankful: Today and Everyday

It's easy to remember to be thankful the month of Thanksgiving. The fall foliage is enough to leave me speechless, not to mention getting stuffed with our favorite people and if your family is like mine, definitely sliding into the Christmas spirit! That's another lovely story of it's own though.

Staying grateful though, that's what I'm here to speak about. It's easy around the holidays for most, but some don't have the luxuries others do, and that's okay. When I'm grateful and non expectant of things, when I release my entitlement, I feel the most relaxed and I find things naturally flow in a happy, content manner. An example: I set a weekly goal to enhance my growth, this experiment is pretty new. One exercise was about strengthening my gratitude muscle. Every morning when I woke up, and before I went to bed at night I listed 5 things I was thankful for. Eventually my lists grew longer, and I began actively looking for the good things in life, more than I'd been doing. The list went from everyday basics like my family, friends, work, etc but as I changed up and dived deeper my additions got more detailed, like I'd replay nice conversations I'd had with customers at my work, or I'd take a different route to get home and would feel grateful for my curiosity or adventurous soul.

Some other experiences leaving me in a more appreciative mood...

Podcasts

You GUYS! I wish i could shout this from the rooftops but Gary Vaynerchuk and Jay Shetty are changing my life! They're polar opposites on the outsides, Gary being quite explicit and loud and Jay being soft and relaxing but they correlate in the fact that they promote self discovery, working hard and so many other great life lessons, one of my favorites was learning how to stop caring what people think. They're two seperate podcasters but they have a couple episodes together and to me those are the best ones, they really balance each other out.

Meditation

I love meditating! People make it look so extra, and to be honest if I had the time, money and space I'd make my own meditation sanctuary, but the good news is we don't need any of the extra stuff. I literally meditate before bed, it's often what lulls me to sleep. And if I'm not in a hurry in the morning I meditate tnen too. At night I usually listen to a guided self love meditation on YouTube and in the morning I'm not too picky I usually look for something energizing. That on top of my gratitude exercise put a positive spin on the day, and even if things get a little rough, you can add to the gratitude list or ground your breathing and quiet your mind for a time.

Prayer

Prayer isn't for everyone, but for me personally, I want to pray more. I'm usually asleep after the gratitude lists and the meditation, but I pray when it comes to mind. I want to work on making it more habitual.

You-Time

Everyone needs time to themselves. Sometimes it's hard to make some, but for those who can make the effort to make time whether it be 5 minutes or hours I guarantee you'll re-enter life more relaxed and in tune with yourself. My favorite activities include doing my skincare and makeup routine to a bomb playlist, watching Netflix, or exploring DC, also with amazing music. I plan on getting a gym membership as well and I feel like that'll also be quite therapeutic.

These are some recent tools I've been using to boost my overall mood, and I'm looking forward to finding new outlets to instill