Choosing gratitude ♡

'Gratitude'

Defined by Oxford Dictionaries as 'The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness'.

It was a few years ago now that I realised that the best way to pull myself out of a dark place was to practice gratitude; to spend time noticing all the positives in my life, however few there seemed. As many as I could possibly list. Until the good thoughts overcame the less-good ones. And at that point I had succeeded because my energy would always shift and I'd feel happy again :-)

So last night I felt a bit like this. I've been so tired lately and not eating as well as I could (which hugely links to mood drops for me). But I couldn't shift this grey cloud...a general feeling of bleugh. I feel very fortunate that these days I seem to have quite a good balance to my life and there are very few dark days or even dark moments. I do believe over time your mind becomes accustomed to new ways of thinking and I think perhaps there are lots of factors why I'm on the whole mostly a happy go lucky sort of person.

So when I began to feel rather lacklustre I knew I needed to help myself to get out of this moment. Especially as I have an old and ingrained habit of wanting to wallow and not help myself! Kind of self-destruct mode where I definitely in that mood don't want to feel better for some bizarre reason.

So I took the initiative. I forced myself to do the only thing I know how to do (which of course in my negative state I was convinced wouldn't work!). And sometimes you really do have to talk yourself in to these things! I began to list things I was grateful for in that moment. I looked around me for every little thing until I filled up that paper. I find the more you can list, the more powerful and fast the result. It's yet to fail me and this is why at The Seashack Mum and I are so passionate about gratitude and why it can help so many of us every day. My energy changed and the real me was back!

I challenge you to try this when you're in that low place - to look for the most littlest things to be grateful for. To choose to shift your focus and energy on to better things. For it's the littlest things that can change the world <3

Gemma xx