BEE GRACIOUS

Through this experience I have been able to gain a new and clearer perspective on the things I once took for granted. I never knew I could get so excited to not have someone standing right on top of me, being able to plant my feet upon the sturdy ground, to touch the grass, to breathe fresh air, and to talk with my parents in privacy. 

What has helped me through my shame, sadness, fear, guilt, and other extreme emotions, is gratitude. 

Gratitude has always been something I’ve misunderstood. Hearing people constantly talk about how they list their gratitudes — I felt like I was not meeting the expectations of what I was supposed to write and feel. But gratuities are all individually unique. There is no right or wrong answer. 

Back at Eating Recovery Center we would state our gratitudes at the beginning and end of our day. I began to notice that I can be grateful for simple things. No gratitude is ever too small, and no thought is ever unworthy of space. Not everything needs to be complex. I always believed gratitudes had to be this big story with perfect and elaborate wording and phrases. However, I realized I was truly grateful for all sorts of different things. 

As I shifted my focus onto more specific entities and feelings, I was able to recognize moments, objects, and ideas that we as humans possibly take for granted. I started to state that I was grateful for my taste, my warm tea, my legs that carry me, my family, my brain and its wisdom, the sunshine, the smell of fresh flowers, crisp morning air, the support I had, my peers and their encouragement and vulnerability. I was and am grateful for my courage and strength — my dreams and motivations. 

I challenge you to begin just noticing the simple things in life; the little moments you can be grateful for. Sometimes you need to zoom in or zoom out. Take a closer look at the beauties in life. They aren’t always big signs. Small moments are just as powerful and miraculous.

xox,

j