I\u2019ve written a lot about gratitude.<\/p>\n
It changed my life.<\/p>\n
Facing heart valve repair surgery a year and half ago I desperately needed something<\/em> to calm a busy mind threatening to spin out of control with the things I couldn\u2019t control. Developing a habit of expressing gratitude on a daily basis turned everything around. \u00a0I even got to the point where I was grateful<\/em> for my awaiting-surgery-situation! \u00a0My surgeon\u2019s passion for his work (mitral valve repair specifically), solid support of my doctors, the opportunity to have a fully functioning heart for the first time in 28 years, the opportunity to develop new habits, the opportunity to strengthen as a person etc\u2026(you can see where I\u2019m going). I had to limit myself to one full page every morning because I could easily\u00a0have filled 20 pages with the volume of my gratefulness.\u00a0Today, 18 months later, I note 10 things I\u2019m grateful for. I can feel my heart opening as I write. It\u2019s a wonderful way to begin each day.<\/p>\n Having said that–I know beginning a daily gratitude practice is easier said than done. I experienced several false starts before I really got going. I always started\u00a0with great enthusiasm and then it would wane. The break down occurred when I got caught in a loop of the BIG THINGS in my life. Grateful for my daughter, my husband, my life, my comfy house, my friends, not that I wasn\u2019t<\/em> grateful for these BIG THINGS I couldn\u2019t get beneath them or break them down. I would write the same things over and over every day without thinking.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t having the deep rich experience I was hoping for, I was on auto pilot.<\/p>\n PUT ON THE MICRO LENSES<\/strong><\/p>\n So what was the problem? Thankfully one day the penny dropped. I was looking at my life through macro lenses and what I needed to do was put on micro specs. I started asking why <\/em>I was grateful for those BIG THINGS. Immediately I felt a shift, my thinking went deeper and the flood gates released. The small things that brought me the greatest \u00a0joy then came into sharp focus\u2026the ping of the text message ping indicating a message from my daughter, my husband\u2019s smile and “Hi Baby”<\/em>\u00a0greeting when he came home from work, \u00a0the newspaper that was tucked into my mailbox waiting for me every morning at 5:30 am, the newspaper deliverer who worked the early morning hours to ensure papers were on time. See the difference? It was a cataclysmic shift.<\/p>\n