Being grateful

But why is it so difficult? To appreciate the things we have. Why do we seem to always look to those that seem to have it better, rather than those that have it worse? I live an incredibly fortunate life with a roof above my head, a wonderful caring girlfriend, a job with great colleagues… yet I seem to long for a different life. Why is that? Why couldn’t I just take it easy, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. No, not me. I constantly try to find things that I can change, improve or remove.

I don’t think I’m unhappy, and I know this for sure when sitting on the veranda of our house on a Sunday morning having a cup of hot tea and Johanna next to me. It’s an utterly and total bliss. The peace, the solitude and the wonderful surroundings. When spending time like this I feel extremely content and happy. Unfortunately too little time is spent like this and I really wish I could find a way to do this more often.

Much of my time is spent travelling to and from work and I’m currently stuck in the 9-5 rut. I’m a consultant and the firm I work for is great, I get to enjoy plenty of freedom which means I’m much more happy working. But the current assignment is getting rather tiresome and being desk-bound is beginning to … well, not exactly excite me anymore.

Anyway, again, here I am, complaining instead of appreciating. The actual work I do is pretty interesting, and I’m learning so much and for that I should be grateful. This is precisely what I mean when I say it’s so easy to start complaining instead of appreciating. Need to try and condition myself to try and find the positive aspects of something I experience as negative. Should be a useful exercise.

Concluding with an exercise

As a concluding little exercise I wanted to quickly list a few things that I’m particularly grateful about. I’m grateful about …

• … having a loving, caring, affectionate girlfriend to share my life with
• … having a generally illness free life
• … weekends and snuggles
• … early morning walks
• … languages and the written word
• … living in a house that is ours (at least on paper)
• … all the people that never seem to stop trying to change the world to be a better place
• … technology (especially ‘the Internet’)
• … mother earth and her natural, stunning beauty that never seem to cease amaze me
• … music and dance
• … and finally, SMILES!

What are you grateful about?