I may be 43 years old now, but I have finally learned some important life lessons that would've been useful to have for the last 38 years. The most impactful of which is a gratitude practice.
I write down three things I am grateful for every day. If I wake up in a colossally bitchy mood this helps me snap out of it. Noticing how good a cup of coffee is in the morning, or seeing a wagging tail nearby makes me remember that there's way more good stuff than bad stuff in my life.
I spent a lot of time grumbling about a life that was pretty double awesome well into my thirties. It wasn't all of the time -- I'm pretty happy go lucky and optimistic by nature. Even so, once I got into the traffic jam, delayed flight, inappropriate time to rectify a wedgie type of irritation it could just carry on into the rest of the day until I actively noticed it and shook it off. A gratitude practice makes me notice it more quickly and sometimes I even avoid that slippery slope of eye rolling my way through the rest of the day or week or even longer.
I had to learn to be quicker to realize that my inner sassy teenager was making me perpetually annoyed (and annoying).
Once I found this out via reading Brene Brown, stoic philosophers, and other brilliant thinkers -- I think it is in the Bible (that's what they mean by counting your blessings, right?) and I'm pretty sure Oprah has mentioned it too. Anyway, people way smarter than me think that practicing gratitude improves your life. I started and it has dramatically improved the quality of my life, everyday. They seem to be right. (#gratitude #thankful #countyourblessings #dailypractice #dream #lifeisgood)
*It was so impactful on my quality of life that I wrote my book Lucy Cate and her Gratitude Attitude. It is for 4-8 year olds and teaches gratitude through a grumpy little owl named Lucy Cate. How much irritation could I have avoided if I had only started this practice when I was little? *