We all have bad days; you know the kind. You just feel like everything is going wrong. I think we have all found ourselves thinking, "I am just ready for this bad day to be over." Well, I found myself thinking that very thought the other day. Luckily, that train of thought ended fairly early when I checked my e-mails. When I got to an e-mail a dear friend of mine sent me, my evaluation of the day and my outlook on life changed. This e-mail contained a link to an online video about a young man, my age, who was born without arms or legs.
Nick Vujicic lives "A Life Without Limbs," as he refers to it. Practically anything you or I could do with our arms or legs, Nick can do with a little, frail, chicken-leg-looking body part that comes out of his hip. It is not a leg, it literally looks like a chicken leg, short and kind of wiry. He uses that small body part to do things like flip a phone up from the ground to his ear or kick a ball. It's amazing. Needless to say, after I watched this video I had to sit back and ask myself if my life is really all that bad. There is no way I could go about my daily tasks in the same way Nick does. If I were in his shoes, I cannot even say I could maintain a positive outlook on life, but he manages to. And do you know something? That gives me strength to be grateful for every moment of every day and it gives me more incentive to give thanks for all that I have.
The most important pre-step to expressing our gratitude is to actually acknowledge small and large blessings in our life. The big blessings and miracles seem pretty easy to spot; they could be the car crash that happened right before your eyes that you barely missed or the fact that the test results for a particular disease came back negative. It's the small blessings I sometimes have a hard time recognizing. Some examples of little blessings in my life are when I get an unexpected letter in the mail or phone call from a friend. I think anything that brings a smile to our face; knowledge to our mind, or talents to our hands is something to be grateful for. Be sure to express thanks for these gifts, blessings, bits of wisdom you learn, or talents you gain. I think there are multiple ways for us to express our gratitude, however the two ways I believe are best include writing thank you notes and saying "thank you."
Writing a thank you note takes approximately five minutes. That is five minutes of your life that can literally help someone else feel appreciated. Everyone loves to feel like his or her efforts were noticed. It is a natural tendency for us to want to be valued. Writing a sincere letter of gratitude can really help a person feel loved and special. Writing thank you notes for small acts of kindness is absolutely a wonderful task as well. I know when I was growing up there was a young boy who regularly opened the door for me to walk into school. I barely knew his name but I still remember how he acted like such a gentleman every day. I wish I could go back and give him a thank you note to let him know I noticed his efforts and that he made me feel so special each day.
I think if you stop and look around, you will find that your life could really be a lot worse. Sure, maybe it could be better too, but we are trying to focus on the positive here. I know I am grateful for my health and strength, the strength I have physically and internally. I have so much to be grateful for and I try to express it to those who deserve credit, whether it is a friend, a stranger or a heavenly figure. Say "Thank you." It just feels good for everyone involved.
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