Being Grateful Changed My Life

If you know me at all, you know I love Rachel Hollis. This chick is the real deal. She lifts you up while simultaneously reminding you that the real world is rough, and you have to be tough to get through. There's nothing like a girl telling you dreams are great, but if you just hope it happens, you might as well realize it won't happen. Hope ain't a strategy ya'll!

Rachel Hollis has all kinds of advice for those of us thinking outside the box and striving for more, but she also has advice anyone and everyone can get on track with. One of my favorites, and one she talks about often, is gratitude practice.

Practicing gratitude is learning to be grateful daily, and acknowledging the things we are grateful for.

I'm not talking about the whole roof over our head, food in our fridge type of things, but the little things. The things that we look at when we have had the day from hell that allow us to realize there really were bright spots in the day.

This is what makes gratitude so rewarding. It's about taking a step back from the day, and really focusing on the things that we may not have noticed at the time.

Every night I sit down and write down 10 things I'm grateful for from that day. I've written down my morning coffee, my body taking me through 8 miles, my barre class, my hair looking good on day 4, and even Lee waking me up early to tell me something he learned about from his podcast. Things that I may not think I'm grateful for at the time, but things that I want to acknowledge and remember.

Knowing that I have to think of 10 things every evening to be grateful for gives me a different view of things as I go through my day. I'm looking with a critical eye, I'm looking for something that I can say, "You know what, yea, this is pretty great. "

I spend more time being happy and grateful than I do being negative. If I’m having a rough day I can snap out of it quicker by focusing on the positives, or at the very least I go to bed with the realization it wasn’t all that bad.

If you've never given gratitude a chance I highly recommend trying it out. Even if it's only 5 things a day, that's something. I promise it will change your life.

Being grateful all day, everyday is a pretty awesome way to go through life.

Love,

Lilly