Honestly, today hasn't been one of the easier days to catch gratitude just flying around.
Spend most of the day searching and trying real hard. But evening came, and still no obvious pop ups.
I've learned by now that if they don't turn up by themselves, those small gratitude moments, I'll just have to create them myself. ...And well, "just" might not be the accurate word, since it doesn't always feel that simple.
However having set my mind on 365 days of gratitude, and not one single day of exception, I just had to make the effort.
And that's when I remembered a time, two or three years ago, when I told a really dear friend that I would looove some more "sparkles" in my life.
A few days later she turned up with a tube filled with sparkling colored thingies.
I have saved this tube carefully. Maybe for a day like this. So I went to get them in the kitchen closet. Poured them out all over the table, placed the headphones in my ears, played the same song over and over again, while letting my hands run over the sparkling surface.
Little by little the rhythm took over. Blues left, and appreciation appeared.
I know it sound really stupid! And I am quite convinced it actually is.
I am also 100% sure my little gimmick won't work for everyone! Actually only for a very few of us ;-)
But that doesn't matter. That's not the point! Each and every one of us can find a way to trick our brain to believe that we are joyful or grateful. Even when we're not. The brain won't know the difference between real joy, and a foolish way of joy, like the one I created tonight. After a short while the old brain will start sending signals to the body as well as the younger cognitive part of the brain. Signals of joy, appreciation and then possibly a feeling of gratitude.
The task here is to figure out, how to trick our brain the easiest way, in case it needs to be tricked. And for most people it's needed once in a while.
My brain is a sucker for music and movement! Psychical movement as well as people who move me.
So that's what I went for tonight - and I succeeded.
Spend most of the day searching and trying real hard. But evening came, and still no obvious pop ups.
I've learned by now that if they don't turn up by themselves, those small gratitude moments, I'll just have to create them myself. ...And well, "just" might not be the accurate word, since it doesn't always feel that simple.
However having set my mind on 365 days of gratitude, and not one single day of exception, I just had to make the effort.
And that's when I remembered a time, two or three years ago, when I told a really dear friend that I would looove some more "sparkles" in my life.
A few days later she turned up with a tube filled with sparkling colored thingies.
I have saved this tube carefully. Maybe for a day like this. So I went to get them in the kitchen closet. Poured them out all over the table, placed the headphones in my ears, played the same song over and over again, while letting my hands run over the sparkling surface.
Little by little the rhythm took over. Blues left, and appreciation appeared.
I know it sound really stupid! And I am quite convinced it actually is.
I am also 100% sure my little gimmick won't work for everyone! Actually only for a very few of us ;-)
But that doesn't matter. That's not the point! Each and every one of us can find a way to trick our brain to believe that we are joyful or grateful. Even when we're not. The brain won't know the difference between real joy, and a foolish way of joy, like the one I created tonight. After a short while the old brain will start sending signals to the body as well as the younger cognitive part of the brain. Signals of joy, appreciation and then possibly a feeling of gratitude.
The task here is to figure out, how to trick our brain the easiest way, in case it needs to be tricked. And for most people it's needed once in a while.
My brain is a sucker for music and movement! Psychical movement as well as people who move me.
So that's what I went for tonight - and I succeeded.