Thank You.

Tuesday was my birthday. I am now 46 years old and feeling really good about myself and my life.

I’ve really learned some lessons this year and relearned things that I always knew but forgot or didn’t believe. Isn’t that the way it is sometimes? You can learn something, know it to be a fact, but until you actually apply it in your life and live it, you don’t truly know it. That applies to everything from having faith to using algebra.

When I was a child I was told to say my prayers. We prayed in Sunday School, at meals, before bed. But no one ever really explained how to pray. I learned the prayers we all said together in church and the prayers my family always said at holidays. There is a common misconception that praying is asking, kind of like a mystical Wish List. What I’ve finally learned about prayer is that a prayer of gratitude is always the most powerful.

Years ago I read Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Simple Abundance and started keeping a Gratitude Journal in a quest to find peace and abundance in my life. At the time it didn’t work for me. I focused too much on the Abundance part of the equation instead of the Gratitude. I still thought it was like a mystical, magic bullet. I was focused on the results instead of the process. I was focused on my perceived needs and what I was getting out of life.

Now I know that isn’t how this whole thing works. It begins and ends with Gratitude. Just say thank you. And not just to God or whatever higher power you believe in, but to everyone and everything. I find myself saying “thank you” multiple times a day and it feels great. There was a time when if someone offered me advice or a correction I’d automatically get defensive and think that I had to prove that I knew what I was doing. Now I just say thank you and listen and often, learn something new. And why is it so hard to accept a compliment? Because we’re taught that being humble means dismissing our own worth. But that is wrong. You can be perfectly humble and still say thank you and own your worth and appreciate when someone recognizes your gifts and talents.

Gratitude also makes tough situations easier and life less shitty. I was inspired by a friend (in other words, I totally stole the idea from her) to start posting a “GRATItuesday post on my Facebook wall every Tuesday, listing whatever it is I am grateful for that day or week. Some weeks it is really easy, some weeks not so much. When you start living in a state of gratitude you look at things differently. I’ve learned that having a bad attitude and being upset or angry or pissed off when things don’t go well doesn’t do me or anyone around me any good. Not to say that I don’t get angry at things that rightfully should make me angry. (Rapist make me angry for instance.) I’m talking here about little things. Like when the dog vomits. What is the point in getting all pissed off about it? Clean it up and move on, and if I’m feeling particularly grateful at that moment, be thankful she didn’t do it on the bed.

Living in and practicing gratitude multiplies the good things in life. Think about the last time someone said thank you or showed gratitude for something you did for them. How did you feel? I bet that the next time the opportunity to do something nice for that person came up you were much more apt to do it. That works in reverse, people and the universe like to help people who show appreciation and gratitude.

In the spirit of this post I am going to say thank you to all of you who read what I have to say. On Tuesday night I noticed that I had 75 followers on my Facebook page for this blog and just asked if people would share it and see if we could get up to 100 by the end of the week. My friends and followers did and we had over 100 in a few hours! As of right now there are 113 which is so cool. I went to bed on my birthday with a huge feeling of love and gratitude and it has continued on through the week. I am humbled by the show of support from friends, family and complete strangers. Thank you.