2 Words that will turn your life into a fine romance

We are taught from a very early age to say thank you for an act of consideration or kindness.  A thank you shouldn’t be reserved for teaching children good manners or only people or extravagant things.  Life generally deserves a huge thank you.  We are offered gifts every day we often take for granted.  As an adult we can act like a spoiled child when we forget our manners.

Thank yous can be much more powerful than an “I hate this”.  We sometimes think we have to have something in order to change or resist it.  This attitude keeps you stick with circumstances that never change.  A grateful heart will attract more into your life than you imagined.

Life hands you gifts all the time, from the simple every day things, like getting a text message from your adult child asking if the loaf of bread she’s just made looks cooked enough.  You got the text.  You had the technology for your adult child to reach out to you.  They wanted to reach out to you.  They have learned the skills to bake bread to feed themselves.  They can be self-sustaining because you taught them how to look after themselves.

If you gave someone a gift and they complained about it, wouldn’t you consider them rude? In a world where we want more, faster, we fail to see all that we already have.

How would you feel if you stopped to notice the daily treasurers in your life that you’ve been overlooking?  Look around you and notice all you have. When we say thank you to life we start to fall in love with our lives as it is, in this moment.  The more you love life, the more life loves you back.

Make how you feel the number one priority and gratitude can help shift your state of being.

Podcast fave Tonya Leigh suggested setting yourself a seven day thank you challenge.  There is so much to be grateful for.  Say thank you to the simplest moments, sometimes out loud, sometimes inwardly.  She offered some examples:

• Thank you for the food on the table, a sunrise and sunset, waking up and taking a breath, the trees as they turn beautiful autumn colours, the ability to see, feel, smell, hear and taste, a body that allows you to experience life, running water.
• Thank you for the things you wanted and now have: relationships, work, family, home.
• Thank you for the things you get to experience:  long walks, cooking a lovely meal, writing, reading, watching a film, meeting friends, travel.
• Thank you for the things you used to complain about: laundry – be grateful for the clothes that you get to wear and the ability to keep them clean and fresh.  Taking out the rubbish – be thankful that the dustmen come round each week to collect it from your house. Your body – it’s what make you uniquely you.
• Thank you for things ahead of time for things yet to be experienced: planning a trip, spending time with friends, a romantic night out.

Its human nature to want more but if you can’t appreciate what you already have, why do you deserve more?

I always make a point of saying thank you for the simple things in life.  I say thank you to C every evening when he dishes up a fresh home cooked meal, or does the laundry, or fixes something.  I thank R for letting us come to see her and wanting to spend time with her parents.  I thank friends and colleagues for their sage advice and support.  I thank people for turning out to come #bellringing with me.  I always make a point of thanking the kitchen and domestic staff when I stay in hotels. I thank people for holding a door open for me.  I thank the delivery driver who not only delivers our office stationery, but puts it away in the cupboard for me even though it’s not his job. I thank the woman in the office who every morning says that my homemade biscoff pancakes I reheat in the microwave, smell delicious.

What deserves a thank you in your life?