Recently, I was in California visiting friends and family, both of whom live near the Pacific Ocean. We went to dinner at a restaurant by a marina where I tried some of the best sour dough bread ever. After dinner we walked around looking at the sailboats with the sun setting as a backdrop. It was one of those moments when all is right in the world (my world anyway). Good friends, good food, perfect weather, incredible view – my heart was filled with gratitude and joy.
Feeling gratitude doesn’t require such perfect moments – although it is certainly easier! Feeling gratitude is about paying attention to the little things in life that happen around you every day.
Here are just a few of those little things that make me smile, that make me grateful, that add meaning to my life.
- A little flower growing out of the asphalt in the road – thriving in the middle of a difficult place to grow.
- The last small brilliant white flower on a huge green bush – all by itself
- My dog looking up at me as I work as if to say, “Let’s go play “- and we do.
- The three humming birds buzzing around the feeder.
- Totally – finally – cleaning out a deep drawer and finding a lost picture full of meaning.
- The clerk in the grocery story on a super busy day who helped me find what I needed.
- Dusting a small table made of “tiger” oak and noticing once again its intricate detail.
- Washing the kitchen window and seeing it gleam.
And the bigger things such as:
- That my friend somehow called me just at the right moment to give support
- That my fingers work – and the rest of my body – as I type this
- That I have indoor plumbing and a refrigerator!
There have certainly been times in my life where feeling gratitude and joy was much harder. One of the things I am grateful for is the role that EFT has played in my life to increase the peace and ability to love and, indeed, feel that gratitude..
Certainly, gratitude and joy are more available to us as we clear out the impact of the negative events in our life. The increase in this ability is my favorite “side effect” of using EFT for, as the saying goes, “doing our own work.”
Pay attention today to what little things cross your path that perhaps give you that brief pause of gratitude in your day. I’d love to hear about them.
