“I am grateful.”
Just saying this when I wake up forces me to take a closer look at my teeny tiny corner of the world, instead of diving right in and moving toward the consumption of images, and news, and to do lists, and panic at what I don’t have.
The fact that I wake up in a bed with multiple pillows and down comforters, and not on a floor, or on the street, under a bridge, on a piece of cardboard, is reason enough to get me through the day, because this is what it is–gratitude–noticing what you have.
But not just that–it’s also noticing what you DON’T have. This can make the observation of one’s list even more powerful. It makes you see how fortune has smiled upon you to be picking up your mug of hot coffee to your lips in a well-equipped kitchen. Subtract your indoor plumbing, and tell me how your day is.
The things you have to be grateful for are endless, and that’s before you even get out of your pajamas “I am grateful” may be most transformative three words we can utter. And when we forget to say them, and find ourselves in need of more, or taking for granted what we possess, all we have to do is reset ourselves and say them, feel them, and like a magic wand, we’re brand new.
*the gratitude-a-thon 