unlocking a full life

Once a year people open their social media and admit how good their life is. Some people do it only on the one day we appoint to give thanks. Others will do it every single day for the month of November (until the 25th). I want to show you how to be grateful every single day of the year.

Against popular opinion, this is my favorite time of year. While for others the early nights and cold weather brings on seasonal depression, I feel like it wakes me up inside. I love walking outside in the mornings and it's already sunny and the crisp air feels like it wakes my bones up. I love sitting in my rocking chair on my balcony at night in fuzzy pjs and fuzzy socks with a steamy mug of hot apple cider. I love holiday season, and I can't get enough of Christmas music. I love that during these last two months of the year, people are a little more prone to recognizing what they have around them. All the get-togethers and shared meals with friends and families make me feel so full of love and a warm happiness.

I think that shifting to a mindset of gratitude throughout every season and for every small thing, is one of the most important things you can ever do for your life. I really believe that everyone can be a "cup half full" type of person.

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Different research will say that it takes different amounts of time to form a habit. The bottom line is that you can. You can literally rewire your brain and change your mindset. An exercise that once helped me, and I believe could help you, is keeping a gratitude journal. I'm generally a positive person so I don't write in mine every day. I really don't ever write in it except for when I feel like I'm not able to be optimistic. When life feels like it's too much to handle or I'm stuck in a bad mindset, I pull my journal out and I make record of what God has done for me and is currently doing for me. If you need this journal to hold you accountable every day, then use it every day! If you only need to use it when you're going through something, use it then!

My gratitude journal has rules. I keep it on my bedside table and write in it right before I go to sleep. The rules are that you have to write at least 3 things that you were thankful for that day, and you can't repeat any of those things for at least a week (but you should try to push that and see how long you can go without repeating anything).

On a good day your list may look like:

1. I am thankful I woke up early and full of energy

2. I am thankful for my nice coworkers and fun job

3. I am thankful for hot coffee and good fruit

On a bad day your list may look like:

1. I am thankful I woke up today

2. I am thankful I have a car for transportation

3. I am thankful I have a job for income

I went a lot deeper with mine on my bad days because I genuinely like being positive and grateful for every little thing I can think of. When I was failing in nursing school I would tell myself all the time how grateful I was that I live in a country where females are not only allowed to obtain higher education, but it is normalized and encouraged. I told myself how deeply grateful I was that I could afford higher education, and had the ability to drive my own car there. There was a year where every single time I prayed, I told God how thankful I was that I lived in a country where I could pray anywhere I wanted and express my faith anywhere I wanted without fear, and I would cry every single time because people don't realize what a gigantic blessing that is.

When it comes to living a life of gratitude, some days you will be grateful for amazing things, but most days it's about fine tuning the skill of being grateful for all the small things that most people just skip right over and don't even notice.

In the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, he talks about how once you know what type of person you want to be, you can begin taking small steps to reinforce your desired identity. So if you want to be a happier person, what does that look like? It looks like being a positive person. Ask yourself all day long while facing different things, "what would a positive person do?" "what would a positive person say or feel?" If you act like a positive person for long enough, eventually you will become that person. Every time you respond like a positive person, you are a positive person. Your habits are how you embody your identity. When I write each day, I embody the identity of a creative person. If you make your bed each day, you embody the identity of an organized person. When you sit down each night and are able to find 3 things you're thankful for, you embody the identity of a grateful person who can find the good. The more you repeat the behavior, the more you reinforce the identity associated with it. (Most of this paragraph was inspired from that book and I 10/10 recommend it.)

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There are a lot of verses in the Bible about giving thanks and being grateful. One of my favorites is Philippians 4:4-7, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." It's biblical to rejoice wherever God has you. It's biblical that when you pray to God, you also tell Him what you're thankful for (Philippians 4:6.)

You know how people say "you attract what you put out into the universe"? There are different versions of this mindset, like karma and manifesting. I have a different view on all of these. This might annoy some of you or it may feel like I'm attacking you, but I think "manifesting" is just a worldly form of praying. For the "attracting what we put into the universe" part, I think that when we live a life where we are truly grateful deep down for every moment of our day and our heart aligns with His, God is going to answer our prayers joyfully. The Bible says to believe what you are praying for (Mark 11:24, Matthew 21:22) and to have the right heart when asking (James 4:3.) When we make the most out of the little that we have, God gives us more. It's the same as the parable of the three servants in Matthew 25:14-30, where the one who had the most invested the most and the one who had the least invested the least. Verse 29 says, "To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance." Even if God isn't necessarily giving you what you have been praying for, the more things that you are grateful for, the more you will find to be grateful for. The more you practice gratitude, the more things you will notice as good.

There's a quote that I love by Melody Beattie that says, "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity... it can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend." This is so true that "gratitude unlocks the fullness of life." To be able to wake up in the morning and be glad that the sun is shining and the birds are singing and the trees are such a pretty green against the sky. When you get home to your empty house at the end of a long day and can't stop smiling because the small moments of your life are everything you need and everything you've prayed for. That is what makes life full.

So when holiday season is over, when the excitement of a new year and new beginnings is over, you can still sit down and decide to be happy where you are. You can still choose to be positive every day until it's a habit, until you are a positive person. You can take the days as they come with gratitude for one more breath and one more meal with friends. You can sit outside at the end of a long day and be thankful for the wind in the trees and the socks on your feet.

As always, I love you SO MUCH, and Jesus loves you even more than that!!! If you have a prayer request, you can head over to my "about me" page, scroll down, and send me a message! If you're reading this, I'm praying God will begin to open your eyes to all the good things around you and soften your heart to enjoy them. I pray you become overwhelmingly grateful right in the middle of your ordinary day-to-day life.