A grateful heart

This message came to me several times in the past week: "Be Grateful."  January is a long, cold and dark month and consequently, during this month I find myself needing to be reminded that I have many things for which to be grateful.

 Last year as I watched my health steadily decline every day, I started keeping track of my diminished capacity.  To better explain my health to doctors, I started a list of every health problem that I was experiencing.  My list started to be a big list of all of the things that I could no longer accomplish.  Though it may have been effective to explain the digression of my health, it was not good for my mental health to focus so much on my "I can't" list.

 When my health was at it's worst and I barely had the strength to get our of bed, I realized that I needed to start focusing on what I could accomplish.  I needed a new list, one that focused on the positive; my "I can" list.  As I lay in bed, I thought of how grateful I was to be alive.  Being brought so low physically helped me to see how precious my life really was.  I was grateful for my heartbeat and for each breath I breathed.  I was grateful for the fact that I could get out of bed, even if it was with great difficulty.  I was grateful for all of the people that were there to take care of each of my needs.  I was grateful for good healthcare to help me recover.  I was grateful to finally have a diagnosis.  I found that once I started to turn my heart and mind towards gratitude, my difficulties didn't feel so overwhelming.

I've heard it said that a grateful heart is a magnet for miracles.  I think that the real miracle that can occur when we live life with a grateful heart, is the miracle of a change of perspective.  When we start to see the proverbial glass as half full, instead of half empty, life really does change for the better.  A study of psychology shows that our reality is based largely on how we perceive our lives.  That means that the power to change our lives lies within each of us and can be truly as simple as a change of perspective.  This power to change our lives truly is a miracle.

The reminder to be grateful is something that I need frequently.  Sometimes life falls short of our expectations.  Sometimes, our challenges can threaten to overwhelm and destroy us.  But life is a gift.  No matter what difficulties we encounter, we can be happier if we live our lives with a grateful heart.