Can You See the Beauty?

On Thanksgiving Day it easy to get caught up in the meal preparation, the company, the house cleaning, and the football game. It is hands down one of the best meals of the year and it is hard not to get pumped up for that. But Thanksgiving is really all about sharing and community; it is a great time to express some Tude (with a capital T). No -not attitude but gratiTude.

Thanksgiving is here and that means it is time to express some gratitude. One of my goals for this year was to keep a gratitude journal and write down at least three things every day that I am grateful for. I have done a good job writing in it every night before bed and the more I write in it, the easier it gets to think of three things.

My daily quiet time also help me to focused on the positive and let go of the negative. For 10-15 minutes I tune out all of the stress, the noise, the frustrations of life and I tune into the quiet. This helps me to start the day grounded, focused and able to see the positivity that surrounds me.

I am still learning how to be a grateful person. Sometimes I pick up my gratitude journal and start to write about a concern or a fear. I catch myself (sometimes) and find a way to turn it into an expression of gratitude. Some mornings my quiet time gets cut short by my dog barking, the wind howling or the negative voice inside of my head. But I have gotten so much better at being able to deal with those interruptions that it doesn’t necessarily derail me from completing the exercise.

Life is full of beauty, love, joy and kindness but these positive attributes get covered up by the gray that surrounds us. We get busy, tired, and stressed out and that makes seeing and hearing the beauty that surrounds us difficult.

Every day, I interact with people who don’t seem to ever see the beauty. They only see the ugly and that is a hard way to live. I am not talking about putting on rose colored glasses here. I am talking about choosing what to focus my attention on so I don’t choose the ugly by default!

I keep plodding along with these activities because I know they are helping me to get out of my own head which is usually a pretty noisy, hectic place. Starting the day quietly and ending the day with gratitude helps me to see the beauty, love, joy and kindness that surrounds me. Most days I see more of the beauty and less of the ugly – how about you?

You can read more about my approach to gratitude here and here.

Happy Thanksgiving! Go see the beauty that surrounds you!

Lake Girl