First it was ‘Christmas in Your Oatmeal‘ and now it’s ‘Thanksgiving Everyday’.  You’re probably asking yourself, “Does Healthy Chow have some sort of a thang for holidays?”  Well, to answer your question, I guess maybe I do?  But if you really want to know, my thang right now is being grateful.  OK, now you’re probably saying to yourself, “Is Healthy Chow a cheeseball or what?”  Call it what you want.  You can call me lame or sappy or whatever, but today I am giving thanks – as if it were the last Thursday in November.

Image Credits – Hobsonumc.org

I think it started a few months ago.  I was sitting at home on my laptop surfing online as usual and I looked at the television and saw this woman crying on the news.  She had lost her job, her home and now had to figure out some way to support her family that depended on her for everything.  She just seemed so distraught and at a complete loss.  I remember feeling so badly for this woman.  Why was all this happening to her?  Why was this happening to so many people?  The bad economy was affecting practically everyone and so many people were experiencing the worst time in their lives.  I’m not saying that the economy wasn’t affecting me or my loved ones, but fortunately, things for me were no where as grim as they were for this woman I was watching on television.

I closed my eyes and said to the Man upstairs, “Thank you for everything that you have given me and thank you for blessing me.”  I just felt so lucky and fortunate to have the life that I have.  I have a wonderful husband, a loving family, great friends, good health, a roof over my head, more clothes than I’ll ever need on my back and food to eat whenever I’m hungry (or not hungry).  But then there are things such as being able to feel the sun shining through the window, being able to smell the clean cut grass while I’m outside, being able to see the smile on a stranger’s face when I greet them with a hello and tasting the delicious sweetness of a ripened mango.  All these things that occur on a frequent basis in my life and I don’t think I take enough time to just be grateful.

So, I decided to start a gratitude journal.  It’s not any sort of fancy book or anything I would want to publish.  It’s just my way of writing down a few things every night to remind myself of all the truly wonderful things that I have in my life and that are a part of my life.  It may sound a bit silly or perhaps even childish.  But making my first entry was more grown-up than anything I’ve done in quite some time.  In fact, writing those first words were not easy.  What would I say?  I mean do I just list people? Inanimate objects?  Food?  Something really simple?  Should I try to be wicked profound?  I sat and thought about that for awhile and for a few minutes, it really got a hold of me.  But then I realized that are no right or wrong answers.  This was simply a gratitude journal – a way to express what I was thankful for.  That said, I began my first entry.  It felt great!  To be able to ‘announce’ what I was grateful for and to just take a few moments to dedicate to being thankful was honestly an extraordinary feeling.

Image Credits – thebluezonesstore.com

Ever since I started my gratitude journal, I’ve noticed that I’ve been more aware of the ‘little’ things.  I don’t know if it’s because I am making myself more aware now or if it’s because more of the ‘little’ things are now happening because I’ve all of the sudden taken more notice (wow, that was complex!)?  Maybe when we’re grateful and take heed of all the goodness that occurs in our life, then more of the good will occur?

For example, when I started my blog a few weeks ago, I’ll have to admit that I was a bit afraid of how the blogosphere would react to me.  What if what no one liked me?  What if no one liked what I had to say?  What if no one cared for the comments I left on their blogs?  How would people react to me?  But then I told myself that I couldn’t worry about things of that nature and that I just had to believe in myself.  If I could find the beauty and enjoyment in other blogs, then I’m sure people would find the same in mine.  That said, I began blogging.  I spoke from the heart and told what was on my mind and people seemed to like it (“I can’t deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!”).  Soon I began receiving comments on my blog, friend requests on FoodBuzz and retweets of my tweets on Twitter.  It was such an extraordinary feeling – to be able to open your heart to a community and have that come back two-fold.  And for that, I was grateful.

This past weekend, as many of you are aware, I had the chance to attend the Healthy Living Summit.  There were over 125 women in attendance and I had the chance to meet a good portion of them.  I made it a point to talk to as many people as I could because I wanted to get to know as many people as I could.  And each person was equally as intriguing as the next.  After the Summit was over, I began receiving emails from people that I had met and people that I didn’t meet saying how much they enjoyed the weekend and how they wished they had more time to get to know the other bloggers.  I had such a warm feeling reading those emails and all I can say is how grateful I am to have taken the chance to become a part of this blogging world.

Image Credits – whatchannelareyouwatching.com

And last night, as I was sitting at my desk feeling extremely thankful for all my new experiences from this past weekend, I received an instant message from a high school friend whom I haven’t seen in years.  She saw that I was online and simply wanted to connect with me.  Even though it’s been way too long since we’ve seen each other or talked to one another, it was as if we picked up right where we left off.  Then, I received a text from another friend saying how much she enjoyed reading my blog and that she was so happy for me  and my new found passion.  I could honestly feel the love and genuine good vibe she was sending to me over the phone.  Earlier on in the day, while on the phone with my mother, we were talking about her new home and how she was finally getting settled in.  I remember thinking that I was excited for her and grateful for the fact that she made the decision to be happy in life.  It was as if at that moment, as I was feeling extremely grateful, more things for which I am grateful started coming my way.

Image Credits – hypnowil.wordpress.com

Our lives move so quickly and things happen so fast that it becomes too easy for us to overlook what is important.  We become so involved with what may be going not-so-right in our lives that we don’t take the time to acknowledge what is going right.  Everything can change in a second, but it only takes a second to see what that everything is before it changes.  In other words, as my yoga teacher said in class the other day, we aren’t guaranteed that we’ll have tomorrow but we are guaranteed that we have today.  That said, be grateful for something today.  Make a list of what you are grateful for in your life and in turn, your life will be grateful for you.

Do you keep a gratitude journal?  If so, what made you decide to start?  If not, would you ever?

Namasté,
Nicole