Five Things I Am Grateful For
Don’t have time to read the entire post now? Watch this video with the summary.
Last week we celebrated Thanksgiving in the United States, a holiday I adopted after moving here. It has become one of my favorites because of its meaning and spirit. It is one of the few holidays not linked to a specific religion or a historical figure so everyone can enjoy it and find meaning beyond the turkey (or the tofurkey) and the sales.
I love the idea of pausing to be grateful whether you eat until your stomach is about to burst, spend it with your crazy family, or stay in town by yourself with a turkey sandwich binge watching Netflix.
The act of being grateful, in time, rewires our brains to appreciate the positive first. Wise Mother Nature programmed our brains to perceive the negative first. That was how enough of our ancestors survived – they saw the tooth saber tiger before the rainbow and ran for their lives.
Having a gratitude practice helps us change the nature of a situation or a person by shifting our perspective. It is all in the eye of the beholder.
Here is what I am most grateful for this year.
1) The People In My Life
I have the perfect family and friends. And when I say perfect, I mean perfect for me.
In reality they are funny, smart, grumpy, quirky, loving, kind (most of the time), cranky, nomads, curious, nosy, permanent, seasonal… and many times I have to take several deep breaths to gather patience, empathy and compassion.
I met amazing people this year both in real life and through their work (authors, performers, etc.). I got reacquainted with old friends, and to my surprise found that we have more in common now – understandable as we are different people now.
Everyone I come across with is both my teacher and my student, and vice versa. I am extremely happy they are all part of my life.
“Sometimes people come into your life for a moment, a day, or a lifetime. It matters not the time they spent with you but how they impacted your life in that time.” Unknown
2) Health
Being healthy is both luck and grinding.
Luck because we all have genes that may trigger at any point in time. If there is high blood pressure or diabetes in the family, you may get it no matter what you do. For those, our goal is to delay that trigger as much as we can with the effort to set the appropriate habits (i.e., grinding) – picking up the kale more frequently than the pepperoni, wearing our running shoes at least as much as our flip flops, etc.
Being healthy also includes mental and emotional health. One of the greatest gifts and opportunities from the pandemic is that we are talking more about mental health. There are more resources. It is becoming less taboo.
One of the best decisions I made in 2020 was to start therapy, and one of the best decisions in 2021 and 2022 was to continue it.
An area of growth for me is to learn to identify, name, and process my emotions instead of shoving them down ashamed that I even had them.
In time I am getting more comfortable recognizing my emotions, riding the wave, and handling them in a productive manner. I try my best to not shove them to the bottom of the trunk.
“Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind, and spirit. When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open.” B.K.S. Iyengar, Indian yoga teacher and author
3) Financial Stability
Like health, there is an element of luck and a lot of grinding when it comes to having your finances in order. If you won the Powerball jackpot of $2 billion dollars, that is luck. The rest is grind.
Financial abundance is a combination of our mindset (do we believe we could have financial abundance?) and how we manage the money we earn.
Like health, it is a matter of prioritizing. Move away from that pair of earrings, the latest gadget or video game, or the e-cart. Do something else – go out for a walk, meditate, talk to a friend, etc., and redirect that money to paying off your debt, fattening your emergency fund, or investing for your retirement.
“Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.” Wayne Dyer, American author
4) Work / Career
For better or for worse we spend most of our time at work, thinking about work, or tending to work stuff in one form or another. Our career can be our greatest teacher if we allow it.
Whether we have our own company or business or work for someone else, work has three components: expertise, people, and organizational culture.
At this point in my life, I am allowing work to be my teacher. I am thankful I learn something new every day in all three aspects including how I behave or react in each one.
In the last quarter alone, I learned about modifications to regulations and rules previously unknown to me. I am part of a project with colleagues I had not interacted with before.
I am the observer and the observed, paying attention to which topics and people energize me, which ones drain me, and adapting accordingly. These insights are priceless and would not have happened in any other aspect of my life.
“What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.” Unknown
5) Positive Intelligence / Mental Fitness
The Universe presented me the Positive Intelligence framework at the beginning of the year through a fellow coach. It has been life changing for me.
Concepts I knew or had heard of became crystal clear. I learned techniques I could apply immediately and exercises I could practice throughout my day to enhance my mental fitness.
I started to see slight changes in myself after the first week of the program. Trivial things that in the past annoyed me do not bother me anymore. Every day I see my capacity to deal with the bigger stressful for me stuff grow. I spend less time in the catabolic energy zone; I bounce back much faster.
This shift and realization have been so profound for me that I decided to join other coaches to study the concepts of Positive Intelligence/Mental Fitness in depth, to acquire the skills to have this framework as part of my tools as a coach, and to offer it to my clients.
“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every person has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all have some.” Charles Dickens, writer
One more thing before you go
There are many more things I am thankful for in 2022 both big and small. I could spend days writing about them. I am even obliged to the big and small irritations I have experienced this year as each has taught me to be more patient and compassionate.
I invite you to look around and inside you for things to be grateful for. It does not have to be anything big or transcendental.
I am thankful I can type with all fingers. That I know how to read and write in more than one language. I am grateful for having all five senses functioning as expected (or with help – I wear glasses to read now). That I can walk, stand, and sit by myself. These are some of the “small” everyday things we take for granted.
When we start seeing all the things that are right with our lives we give our RAS new instructions – i.e., look for what is going well in my life. And the RAS complies and shows them to us.
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” Epicurus, Greek philosopher
What are you most grateful for? Please, let us know in the comments.
As a leadership coach, I enable talent to achieve bold goals with high standards. My mission is to empower underrepresented women in the financial industry transition from mid to senior level leadership positions using mental fitness to achieve peak performance, peace of mind, and healthier relationships.