Things I Heard People Are Thankful For

Let’s admit it… as much as we’re grateful for friends, families, and thanksgiving gatherings, we are also grateful that the whirlwind of gobble gobble festivities are over and we’re thankful we all got together and we’ll get to see aunties and uncles again…. next year

Here’s a list of what I heard people say they were thankful for:

- pumpkin pie, cranberries, and ice cream

- hope

- a turkey fryer

- that someone else cooked

- forgiveness

- miracles

- dysfunctional family

- mustaches

- iphones, text messaging, and facebook

- turkey trots

- boyfriends (note the ‘s’ lol)

- 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th to infinite second chances

- breath

- hula hoops

- yoga

- surviving

- living in California

- kids

- 49ers

- chardonnay, merlot, pinot noir, and tequila too

- a place to live

- a job

- my “overall” positive attitude

- immigrants

- high heels and ugg boots

- health

- the people who put up with me

- another day of life

- all the wonderful and horrible times because all of it has made me who I am

- my cushy life

- my body.. it does a lot of the things I ask it to do

and of course friends, families, husbands, wives, kids, parents, and grandparents were on top of everyone’s list.

Find something to be grateful for each and every day.  No matter how simple or magnificent the gratitude is, it is the fuel that fires up the love in our hearts.

“I feel a very unusual sensation.. if it’s not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude” ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Grateful for my blings and things

Yes, you read that right.  I am grateful for my blings and things.  I’m not gonna lie.  While everyone is grateful for the obvious things we should be grateful for like friends, family, sun, moon and stars… or perhaps that’s what we’re conditioned to be grateful for otherwise we appear to be shallow, superficial, materialistic.  Seriously, if you posted ‘I am grateful for my fancy cars’ on your facebook page, I’d bet you would get spammed with a ton of opinionated comments.  But why wouldn’t you be grateful for everything you have?  If I had a fancy car, I’d be grateful for it. 

image: http://mimiandeunice.com/2011/09/14/gratitude

Over the years of my lifetime, I’ve acquired many blings and a whole bunch of things… useless things that I thought I needed.  These things that I thought defined me. my worth. my success. my happiness.  They did.

… until one year I caught myself standing in line on black friday at 4am feeling proud to be able to tell my battle story of how I got a good deal. 

… until there was so many things that I had no where to store them.  

… until I got sick of packing them every time I moved.  

… until I realized the amount of hours I worked to get that bonus that I’d spend on more bling and things.

… until I saw a house full of bling and things that only filled up space…

If I could store my blings and things in my heart, I bet they would all fit inside there and leave extra wiggle room… cause with all the things that defined me, I am still left with a big hole in my heart. 

This is why I am grateful for my blings and things.  They helped me see that nothing lasts forever.   Nothing.  Especially things. 

So in this moment,  I am truly grateful for everything I have.  My health.   My home.  My kids.  My relationships.  My family.  My friends. My food.  The table I get to eat my food off of.  The sun that grows my food.  The rain that bathes me.  The dirt that supports my every step.  Everyone I’ve met.  Yes, even the assholes.  Especially the assholes.  The pain.  The challenges.  The sadness.  The joys.  I count my blessings for the full spectrum of these things, people, and experiences… for this is what shapes me… this is what helps me clearly see who I really am and shines light to the place where my shadow lives. 

GRATITUDE.  It’s the thing that I now cultivate in my heart… for gratitude helps turn what I have into enough.

I Get to

Last night I was complaining about how tired I was and how many things I didn’t get done yesterday.  The hubby blurted out, “shut up! you get to go to work in sweat pants.”  Before I could defend my lulus, I laughed and remembered yet another ah-ha moment I had at advanced vinyasa teacher training:  I GET TO…

Consider how you show up for your day when your alarm goes off.  What’s the first thought that runs thru your head?  “Ugh.. I have to get up for work.  I have to get the kids ready for school.  I have to do this.  I have to do that.  I have to, have to, have to.”  How does that leave you feeling for the rest of the day?

When I doubled my teaching schedule, I started to say “I have to teach another class” when my buzzard went off at 5am.  Needless to say, I started to feel like teaching was a J-O-B… something that I never wanted to feel because I love this yoga stuff.

photo credit: http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l615/lalamarthe/Grateful/grateful.jpg

 

No doubt life throws us all sorts of challenges and there are things that we need to do, but how we show up for it makes a big difference.  I’m not trying to be a cheesy cheerleader for positivity (it helps though) but try to change one word in your vocabulary from “HAVE to” to “GET to” and notice an immediate shift in your way of being.

What do you get to do today?