Gratitude and Service
Gratitude and service change everything.
Read that sentence again.
We all know that being grateful for things can lead to a happier life. We get told over and over again that when you brain looks for the good in life it starts to see more of the good. It starts to find more and more things to be grateful for in life. Sort of like a positive snowball.
Here is something different about gratitude. When you have a day where you feel stressed or upset or lonely – have you tried thinking about what you are grateful in your life? It may not feel natural in a stressful moment to do this but I’m noticing that it is something powerful.
The other day I finished a video call with family and I had dinner with my boyfriend and it was a lovely day. But then when I started doing paperwork and admin after dinner I started to feel really down. I was missing family and thinking to myself I wish had accomplished more with my life. I started to feel like I was going into a nostalgic rabbit hole. Nostalgia is good for a short time but when the brain starts to live in the past it becomes a dangerous trap!
Instantly I looked around my home office and started finding things I love. From my planners to the quote prints and ornaments on the dresser etc. I started to think about the good things in my life and I even flipped through my powersheets to look at my big picture board. It had photos of all the important people in my life and it gave me a huge boost.
I realised there and then: stress has the power to make you lose sight of all the good in life until you stop & actively think about the good that is right in front of you.
Every day I like to write down one thing I’m grateful for every day and whilst that helps, I find looking at my big picture board helps me to really ground into the good feeling of all the amazing things in my life. I’m a visual person so I find picture boards work by keeping my dreams in front of me.
And when all else fails what do I do? Listen to my favourite songs on my playlist. There is nothing better than jamming to your favourite songs to get you out of a negative headspace.
But what about service?
The second half of the opening sentence talks about service. Gratitude and service go hand in hand. Jay Shetty’s books Think Like a Monk goes into this in much more detail. If you haven’t read it definitely check it out. I found the book easy to read and it was like having a friend and cup of coffee guide me along the path.
Being in service to others creates so much to be grateful for. Service involves giving and here is when the majority of the world switches off. Charity and donation can be hard to talk about. But in connection to gratitude it is important to recognise not everyone in the world has the same things that you might have. For example, I’m typing this blog post on an Apple Macbook that I was lucky enough to be gifted. I’m sat at a desk that my other half fixed together and I have a constant supply of electricity. There are so many people that don’t have that without major difficulty.
Now I’m not saying you should donate all of your things and help the less fortunate right away (unless you want to in which case I’m not stopping you!).
What I am saying is that we all have the power help in small ways and to make an impact on the world. We can do small things like saying hello to the person behind the counter in Tesco to putting baskets away when we leave. We can do big things like seeing what our local communities need help with and finding a way to give back with food donations and soup kitchens.
We can also start from where we are now with who we know and what we have right now. We can look after people closest to us and foster an attitude of giving. Service isn’t just about giving to strangers, it’s also about the care in each of our interactions with other human beings.
I challenge you to reach out to one person today that you haven’t spoken to in a while and ask how you can help them. You may just find that having somebody listen to them may be the thing they need to feel happier and noticed.