little shots of awesome

In The Beauty of Different, I talk about the genesis of my gratitude practice*:  every night, after I've turned off my bedside lamp but before I fall asleep, I think of One Good Thing that has happened to me during the day.  Some days, I can think of something really big and fabulous to be grateful for.  Other days, my gratitude runs to the small and ordinary.  But in any event, in over 16 years, I've always been able to come up with something.  And I maintain that having a gratitude practice, while generally easy to do during the good times, is almost essential during the tough times.  In fact, there have been occasions when it has been the only thing that has sustained me.

 

Late last week, I received some medical news about a very close member of my family.  The good news is that the situation was caught early and in this case, it's treatable, with a near 100% chance of a full and complete recovery.  The not-so-great news is that treatment will be somewhat protracted and uncomfortable.  And so, while I keep reminding myself that it's all going to work out in the end, for the past few days I've had this low-grade current of worry permeate my every waking moment.

As a result, I'm feeling compelled to ramp up my gratitude practice.  As I've mentioned, I've never had a problem coming up with something to be grateful for; but recently, I'm going out of my way to make something good happen each day, so that I can remember it at night before I fall asleep.

Some days, it's just doodling and messing about in my journal.  (Okay, a lot of days it's just doodling and messing about in my journal.)

Other days, it's buying myself a grocery-store flower or two.

 

 

Yesterday, it was a vat of cappuccino and a cake ball.

 

 

I have to say, it has been really, really comforting to have these little moments to think about as I drift off to sleep.

How about you?  Do you ever do anything to intentionally inject a little shot of awesome into your day? 

 

*  If you're curious about what some of the things I've been grateful for have been, I share photographs of them every Friday over at my Babble Blog, Bliss Your Heart.

Images:  Shot with my new Olympus E-PM1 camera, given to me by Olympus as part of their PEN Ready Project (I'm #874).

 

Song:  Iron man, as performed by Four Tet

 

Karen Walrond13 Comments