“Reflect upon your present blessings — of which every man has many — not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”- Charles Dickens
Have you taken time out to be thankful for the blessings you do have now?
Some of my friends asked me, how can I have peace of mind at times when there is nothing seemed to be right? What is my secret?
First of all, I can tell you that there is no secret. But what I can share with you is one of the many principles that live by and practice constantly since I was young.
That is gratitude.
I didn’t know the word “gratitude” exists in the English language until someone asked me. Then I asked her what it meant and she explained it to me.
Here is the definition of gratitude and example based on Oxford dictionary.
grat·i·tude. [ˈɡradəˌt(y)o͞od] is a noun.
The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness:
“she expressed her gratitude to the committee for their support”
You see, I would be grateful if I were to have the four basic needs to survive an egg or a Fuji apple, shelter, air and water. Of course the more the merrier if they create and impact my life and those around me positively.
If you read my book, then you could understand many critical life lessons I’ve learned. Plus, you’ll discover new things to spice up your life a little more spicier.
The following, not all, but are some of my personal things that I’m very grateful for now in my life. Of course, you may use this list to add to yours. These are in no particular order. Each one has its own place and special purposes.
- You – If there is no YOU, then there is nothing else. Have you seen the classic move “It’s a Wonderful Life”?
- Smile – Do you know that smile can greatly increase your good mood and reduce stress? Plus, when you smile you appear to others as a likable, courteous and even more competent person according to researchers at Penn State University. Sadly, there are people like, Maddox Perales , who are born with Moebius Syndrome, cannot smile.
- Eyesight – If you are reading this, be thankful that you can see things and everything around you.
- Sleep – a good night sleep can jumpstart our energy, rejuvenates our youth and have great feeling.
- Smell – Arrhhh how wonderful to smell the fresh air in the morning, smelling the ocean breeze, the fragrance from flowers, the aroma from mom cooking or that fresh lemon scent when you walk into your friends’ homes.
- Touch – allows you feel things like when you touch your silky face or your loved ones.
- Hearing – letting you hear the different vibrations, music and your loved ones voices.
- Intuition – having the ability to understand situations from your own instinctive feelings.
- Food – Many of us are so blessed to have the luxury of not having to worry about if we get to eat the next meal. In fact, we have plenty of options to choose for each meal. In poor countries, people die from starvation. In well developed countries, some people die from over eating. I know what it is like to have nothing to eat when there were only the sky above me and the very ground I stood on.
- Shelter – for having a lovely, cozy place to live and sleep at the end of our day. A place we can call home sweet home. There are people somewhere right now, all they have is the sky as their roof and ground is their bed .
- Clothing – to help protecting us from the four seasons weather. And for the amazing fashion trends if we keep up with the trends, some of us can end up losing our pants.
- Safety – knowing each moment we live is safe. No fear of us being harm by human or Mother Nature.
- Breathe – we are healthy and can breathe on our own. There are people in ER right now fighting and begging to have a few more stroke of breaths.
- Education – Many opportunities appear by having education. When you have nothing to gain, gain education either in conventional or non-conventional ways. America has one of the best education systems in the world. Yet so many people are taking it very lightly to not choosing education.
- Job condition – Many of us work in a nice, modern indoor offices with adequate safety, high tech equipment and resources at the touch of our fingers. Many companies supply coffee, teas, sugar, soft drinks and etc. free of charge to employees. These items consider as “normal” in America; they are regard as luxury in poor countries.
- Family/friendship – For those of us, myself included, who have a loving, caring, peaceful family and friends are very lucky and blessed.
- Living life – We are blessed to be born as human, not animals or some other forms, to experience this wonderful life. We may have many more days to live, but we only have one life in this life time with no pause, review, forward or stop button.
- Taste – To savor all the delicious sweet cookies, ice cream, chocolate, bitter melon, sour lemons, wines, spicy hot, BBQ buffalo wings and too many list here.
- Mentor/teachers – By having mentors/teachers to counsel and share their knowledge with us is a great gift. They help shorten our learning curves tremendously.
- Heart – to give us the ability to feel. Having a healthy heart transfers the blood to our body constantly is a very heavy duty.
- Speech – to have the ability to communicate when we want to.
- Hands – enable us to do so much to living. Because of healthy hands, you are reading this message as I am typing each letter.
- Lakes/river/ponds – sitting by water can wash away so much sadness and sorrow and bring you so much peace to your mind.
- Mother Nature – similar to Lakes, Mother Nature is the best natural healer there is to many of our emotional problems. You can enjoy nature by just planting a small plant and watch it grows at your home.
- Kind strangers – many times we come across generous strangers giving us hope, a smile, wisdom and landing us a hand when we need help the most.
- Laughing – having a good laugh from the bottom of your heart makes you feel so good.
- Love – love can conquer and is one the most powerful emotions. Love can take a person to the moon and back again.
- Challenge – convert it to an energy that can trigger us to give all our might to over come issues at hand so that we can reach your destination full of joy.
- Freedom – to have the ability to do whatever we want and when we want. Imagine if you were to wake up one day when you have no freedom to do anything.
- Pets – I think we need pets more than they need us because they are our best friends, companions and the healers.
- Bed – a comfortable bed can make you feel like we are in heaven. Do you miss your bed when you’re away from home?
- Autos – enable us to make our lives more freedom, convenience and we can go to distance places.
- Clean water – it is one of the four must have basic needs. I remembered I had to walk far away from our home to get a few gallons of water from a well after a war. I still conserve water daily even though all I have to do is to turn on the faucet.
- Music – Arrrh how wonder it is to listen to some great music that talk straight to our emotion. Thanks to the music artists!
- Freedom of speech – we can pretty much have the freedom to express our opinion about almost anything we want.
- Freedom to choose a soul mate – it is a great liberty that you choose to love and married the spouse at your own will and desire. There are many people do not have this freedom.
- Indoor plumbing – we don’t have to go miles and miles to bring water home. Everything is modernized.
- Wisdom – having the mental capability to think and make decisions at any given time and space.
- Trees – provide so many environmental benefits to our lives.
- Grocery stores – everything we need are mostly fresh conveniently available, stocked up and ready for us at our local stores. No need to go hunting and gathering stuff.
- Shoes – many of us have more than a pair of comfortable shoes that we wear as the protection for our feet. Otherwise our feet might look like Bigfoot feet.
- Brain – having a healthy brain provides us limitless imaginations.
- Diversity – we can learn so much from each other in this melting pot society. There are so many ethnic restaurants within the walking at where I live. How awesome is that!
- Electricity – you always have lights just by the push on the switch button provided that you pay the electricity bill. Please remember to turn the lights off when you don’t use it. Together we can help save the resources. Imagine if your mobile devices have no batteries and you have no electricity.
- Learning ability – we are blessed to have the mental ability to learn things.
- Ocean – there are so many lives living in the ocean that provides resources to many living things, including the seafood most of us like so much.
- Scientific Medicine – Thanks to many scientists who developed many break-through medicines to cure and prevent so many deathly diseases.
- Natural herbs – they earn their special places that modern medicine sometimes cannot achieve. Having grown up when there was no modern medicine, herbs had saved my life.
- Entrepreneurs – our world is lively and many positive advancements contribution to our comfortable and efficiency in life because of the innovated entrepreneur minds.
- Freedom to vote – allowing us to elect who we want to be our leaders.
- Internet – has enabled us to endless possibilities. Thanks to the internet we can travel the world with a just a few clicks of the keystrokes. And we can get to see things that we have no desire to see.
- Technology – similar to Internet, technology advancement is changing at speed of nanoseconds beyond the scope of the human minds. It’s amazing what it can do for us.
- Non-violence – as much as painful for some of us to experience a war, myself included, when a situation is called for in order to save and protect many innocent lives. Honestly, I wish there is no military exist on this earth, and we can resolve conflicts without violence.
- Chocolate – a mouth watering piece of chocolate or chocolate cake brings joy. How about that yummy chocolate with almonds?
- Waste disposal, Sanitation & Recycling – to keep , create clean and renewable energy for our environment. All we have to do just take the trash from inside to outside of our homes.
- Sun – a sunny day can bring smile and clear away our worries. It brings life to many life forms.
- Moon – to see the beautiful night life. Without the moon, NASA wouldn’t landed on the moon. Researchers believe that ocean tides are caused by the moon’s gravity.
- Healthy – having good health is having a rich life. Imagine what your life or medical bill would be like if you are not healthy. Without health, there is not much to your life.
- Family/friends – they makes you enjoy life better and help you look forward to tomorrow.
- Friendly workers – working with friendly people whom you can get along and understand the nature of work, not just the deadlines, make your day at work a huge different.
- Understanding boss – to work with a boss who has a heart and mind in sync together makes you want to get up and go to work.
- Tradition – every culture has traditions. Tradition makes our life lively.
- Soap – helps us tremendously in keep up with our hygiene. Imagine life without toilet, toilet paper and soap. It is grossly, isn’t it? In many parts of the world today, soap is a luxury item.
- Writing paper – although we write less on paper these days, in away, it is good because less natural resources are used. I remember when I was going to school in Cambodia, I had to write each letter so tiny so I could write more and used less paper. In many parts of the world today, paper is a luxury item.
- Flowers – seeing flowers bring joy, love, peace, happiness and so much more great feelings. No wonder flowers are sold mostly on Valentine’s Day.
- Salt – food would be so plain without salt. In the Cell Metabolism, Jonathan Jantsch, from the University of Regensburg in Germany, reports that salt may be an effective way to ward off microbes.
- Libraries – Wow, it’s a luxury to have so much free resources available. Gaining access to free knowledge is golden opportunity in America where in other corners of the world could only dream of.
- Night – letting us recharge and dream the night away in a deep sleep.
- Day light -everything come to live during day time. How wonderful life is to be able to experience another day light.
- Hair – having beautiful hair is great. Plus, it protects the head from cool or hot weather.
- Peace – what a treasure and how beautiful it is to have a peaceful moment.
- Death – It is a good thing. I don’t want to see myself live forever. We are apart of the ecosystem.
- Summer time – What good is of the snowy winter, without the hot summer to melt it away.
- Fire – to cook our food, warm our homes in cold winter and much more.
- Flushing toilet – having a flushing toilet indoor within a few steps away from you is a luxury. Imagine if you have to use a bathroom in the middle of the freezing night. But first, you must dig the ground before you do your business. Trust me, there was no pleasure to it. I’ve been there and done that. Thanks to Sir John Harrington for inventing flushing toilet in 1596.
- Toilet paper/bathroom tissue – thanks to Joseph Gayetty for invented the toilet paper in 1857. The Chinese emperor was reported as the first to use toilet paper in 1391. It was a luxury item and only royalty had access to toilet paper! It still is luxury in some parts of the world.
- Love what you do – many of us are very fortunate to get paid doing what we love or passionately about tirelessly. I can vouch for this as I’m building my business and am loving it.
If you don’t have a list, you can start one today. Begin with a weekly list of seven things you appreciate most in your life. Next week, you just add more to your the list. Some people I know, they write their gratitude daily each morning or at the end of their day. Remember, this is YOUR list. What other people think of it, do not be concerned.
“A fulfilling life is the simplest form of gratitude.” – Neary Heng
If you haven’t read my book, you should it get here. Oh, it would be great for GIFTS.