I have always heard about “practicing gratitude” and writing gratitude journals and lists from many meditation sites and magazines and how they have great health benefits but I never wanted to stick to them. In all honesty I used to view anyone who tried to see the good in life to be horribly stupid and unaware of the problems in the world. 

But I hit a breaking point the other day where I was sitting on a log at the beach, and realized that I never feel any joy. Ever! I never enjoy anything, always mad at people, always depressed and ready to die. I hated that feeling so much. I used to pride myself in being a cynic and a “realist” but I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt like I was drowning and getting nothing out of life anymore. It felt like a living hell. 

Now I’ve given gratitude thinking another go. It has helped. It’s not even about feeling perfect, obviously I know my life isn’t perfect and the world has issues but being able to re wire your brain into being able to focus on more of the positive aspects of your life instead of what you are lacking is so so so so helpful. It actually makes you more productive , for some reason I thought I’d start to be more positive I would get lazy and just stop trying, but it’s been the opposite. You don’t have so much mental anguish and you have so much more energy to get excited about change and living life. 

You’re not dragged down by shackles anymore. This obviously isn’t a cure all but I had such a better day today than most days. I have had several health scares this last week and even then I was still able to go to a beautiful park with my boyfriend and just enjoy nature for a little while.