Thank Outside The Box With Gratitude

What better way to welcome the New Year than with gratitude for all that we’ve got and gratitude for all that we’re about to receive, because receive we will!

Gratitude = Happiness

My gratitude lists grow as I stretch my soul with the Gratitude Circle – an activity on the 4th Thursday of every month when we say thanks.

2014 has been a good year, just like every other year before it. I’ve found that it is easy to be happy when I reflect back and appreciate the good times and take what I can learn from the not so good.

Truly, gratitude transforms life as we have a better sense of perspective. To me, it brings serenity.

While I am grateful for all the wonderful things that happened in 2014, I am specifically grateful for the wake-up calls, the disappointments, the tears and the losses. They’ve made me realize that I can be strong and continue to smile as I accept the things I cannot change and be grateful for what I have with even more intensity.

An example is being diagnosed with diabetes. I remember my initial reaction – anger. But thanks to the support of my family and friends, I quickly got over that feeling and decided to focus on my health. I am guilty of not always having done that. Not only am I conscious about my own health, I am also keen on helping others reach a good place. With that in mind, in 2015, I plan to post regularly at my health blog, Be Healthy, Be Happy. I am also launching another blog titled Life Hacks for Diabetics where I’ll be posting a tip a day.

And because I cannot do just one thing at a time, I have also started another blog along the same lines – titled “Life Hacks for Happiness” – where I’ll post one happiness tip a day!

What good is knowledge if it is not shared?

I am also grateful today that my visit to the eye hospital yesterday did not bring major bad news. So my eyesight is worse. If there’s one thing I dread, it is the loss of eyesight. Turns out I have to change glasses which means I heaved one big sigh of relief. Of course, the cost of the lens is freaking me out, but that’s a small price to pay when we look at the big picture. It reminds me of another visit 20 years ago – when, after an entire day of tests and specialists, I was advised surgery. Bad enough it would cost a bomb and probably keep me in debt for the next 20 years, but the prognosis was a 50-50 chance of success, which meant that I would either achieve 20/20 vision gradually, or lose what I had. I am not telling you what I chose.

I consider it a win-win today. I never regretted that choice. As my best friend would say – girls with glasses… oh you know what I mean!

I feel deep gratitude for the people I connect with via this blog, and via social media. I send up a special prayer for the Internet for linking me with so many lovely bloggers. Human connections make everything worthwhile!

I am thankful for all the books I read this year and the ones sitting in my digital library – I playfully like to say that I have enough to read for as long as I live. One of my friends keeps asking me who I will bequeath my collection to..and you know what? Funnily, it can be more than one person. Makes me smile!

I am very grateful for all the people who touched my life in a very special way.

I am grateful for the collaborations that materialized this year, and the writing work I do, which made it possible for me to increase my annual contributions to the welfare homes I support.

While I grieve for the family I’ve lost this year, I feel blessed to have known them for as long as I did.

As I continue to count my blessings, I invite you to do the same and join Corinne and me every month, as we celebrate our gratitude. I promise you that life is so much more brighter when we see with the eyes of appreciation.

Write your post. I know some of you wrote it last week. Add your link to the linky below.

May the year 2015 bring you all that you wish for. I am looking forward to a wonderful one!

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