Gratitude

The day gently cascades in from my window

to nudge me from my lucid dreams.

It's a new day. Gratitude

My bed is a sea, and a wave of blankets

crash and wrap around me.

I fight the tide and slowly emerge from the ocean of

cotton, feeling my muscles flex and relax.

I have movement. Gratitude

With a flick of my wrist, I turn on a waterfall

and position my chest to receive the hot water.

My heart circulates warm life throughout my body.

I am revitalized. Gratitude

I think PERSPECTIVE is one of the most powerful tools we have. In a moment of anger or perhaps reoccurring moments of feeling down, being able to step back, take a breath and gain a clearer perspective is the initiator of gratitude.

Believe me I know it’s not easy to lift your gaze from a difficult situation that you’re in and suddenly be optimistic. I think a more manageable approach is to start with thinking about the seemingly small things. Like waking up to a new day. Like having a working body. Like having a simple shower allowing you to start the day feeling new.

I‘ve wrestled with depression and feel what perpetuates it is a lack of perspective. Allowing that issue to draw all your attention and then all the other wonderful aspects of your life fades out of focus into the background. Now the two common responses to that, is firstly, ‘It’s a chemical imbalance’ and secondly, ‘well you should be grateful because more people have it worse’. Those could both be true, but not always helpful. Meds very rarely provide a solution to the problem and mostly just mask the symptoms, with the purpose to give space to deal with the underlying issues. I believe that medication is an add-on tool, not one to be used exclusively. Secondly, downplaying your struggles by comparing to others still keeps the focus on the negative.

What I try to do is think about little positive things and try hold that focus for a moment. I don’t get this right all the time and it’s a difficult habit to cultivate. I used to pray a lot and that basically facilitates this and was very effective. Now I journal. Essentially another form of prayer, but with metrics I can go back and track my mental status and progression. When I was going through dark patches, I would express those thoughts and feelings through poetry, and both then and now it provides great perspective and stirs up gratitude for the journey I’m on. I’m not a doctor, but found this works for me to keep my head screwed on straight.

Take a long slow breath.

Think about two or three things that are positive in your life.

Quite your mind and focus on that for a minute.

See what happens…