5/52 Lists: Grateful for Regrets

This week’s post for the 52 Week of Lists challenge is all about the things you are grateful for. Personally I feel like gratitude is a very humbling and cleansing emotion, and the act of being grateful is almost like meditation. I want to try something with you guys, just to get you thinking and understanding my point. If you aren’t already sitting down, have a seat. Take a breath and get comfortable for a second. You could be in your office, lounging on the couch, in a packed school library, on your lunch break, whatever. Just… take a breath to refocus and relax your mind for a second. Think about the last time you felt truly grateful. Do you remember what and when it was? What were you doing? How did you feel at that moment? Take yourself back to that exact moment in time when you felt grateful for anything in your life. Grateful for the roof over your head, for the health of your family, for a moment of peace and quite. Just remember that for a second. Do you feel your mood change? Okay, continuing think about that moment of utter gratefulness. I’m assuming that when you happened to think about that moment, you also remember everything that got you to that moment of gratitude. Whether it be the three part-time jobs you had to work to get your degree, the two whole weeks of sleepless nights, or the drama and aggravation that finally got you to graduation or starting your business or creating a new fashion line. I’m betting you remembered every hardship and struggle that came before that moment of utter gratitude, am I right? Once you get to that stage of being grateful, what you’re really gracious for is the fact that you got through it. In that way it’s like the steps of meditation. You breath in or remember your struggles, arrive at the peak of holding your breath or reaching a state of gratitude, and as you release your breath slowly you let go of your struggles leaving you in the glow of gratitude. Ta daaa~!

That being said here are a few little things I’m grateful:

• My family for always seeing the best sides of me
• The constant roof over my head
• For always being in someone’s thoughts
• For books
• For writing, even though I don’t do nearly enough of it anymore I’m grateful for the expression of thought
• For my wonderfully amazing parents, they are some of the most hard working people I know
• For my mother’s work horse mentality, it definitely rubbed off on me
• For having both of my grandparents, even after I two stroke my grandfather still has a wonderful sense of humor; he’s SO funny
• For my Aunt and Uncle who are like… the spiritual head of our family. Their faith is so strong and unwaivering, they are the most amazing role models
• For being single and NOT wanting a relationship
• For my regrets, because they help me to live without them
• Mistakes, because I’m more aware of how easy it can be to make a life changing one
• For my appreciation and love for vegetable gardens and fresh produce because it planted the seed (pun intended) of one day attempting to live sustainably off my own land
• For nature
• For feeling safe
• Beautiful landscapes
• My blogging experience
• For every person that has viewed, commented, read, or followed my blog (even just in passing), it’s validation even if you don’t realize it; you saw me, you clicked, and you even contemplated looking around, haha
• For my dreams and aspirations, they are like an inspiration board constantly in my head so I’ll never forget them
• For my empathy, if you ever get the chance to get to know me in real life, you’ll know that I am like an emotional mirror. If you’re happy, I’m happy, if you’re sad, I’m sad, if you cry, I cry. I just have this ability to share in people’s emotions. I’m also grateful that I don’t think that is a bad thing.
• For music. Music has the ability to influence my who mood, good music makes Elle feel good inside.
• University. I’m grateful I haven’t given up on it, I’m grateful it’s available to me, and I’m grateful that I love the learning experience.
• For high school. It was pretty insane and difficult to go through, but that last year… was like coming into my own, my grades were higher than they have ever been, I found out who my true friends were, I’m even grateful for the bullying.
• For being really close to my siblings, my brothers are amazing and I always wished I had a sister, but honestly I can’t complain.

I’ll leave it there for now. I hope you guys enjoyed this post and as always I expect the harshest of criticisms in the comments below, haha.  Let me know if you tried that little thinking excericse above and also what your thoughts are on the act of being grateful, as well as a few little things you’re grateful for. I hope you all had a wonderful Thursday!

Got an extra minute? It would mean a lot to me if you participated in my blog evaluation, it’s just a quick survey telling me what you think of this here blog of mine. I appreciate every single one of you, even if you don’t complete the survey, hahah. Please do though, it would be a huge help to me!

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