Birthdays and Gratitude

“It’s not happiness that brings us gratitude.

It’s gratitude that brings us happiness.”

– Anonymous

This week is my Birthday week. Another year-round the Earth and Sun. Some years my Birthday is no big deal, some years I am excited for that renewal. It really depended on where I was mentally, physically, and spiritually in my life as to how I felt about another year older.

Over the years, there were periods in my life when I hated myself and the life I had. I had lived a traumatic childhood which led me into traumatic adulthood with unhealthy decisions and life choices. As the birthdays rolled by, I began to be a chronically depressed and anxious person.

I would try to make choices to regain control of my health and my life. It was back and forth. For every step forward, I fell back two steps. When my entire life foundation was being a people pleaser who placed others’ needs over my own mental and physical health, I was in a constant stop/start cycle.

In 2008, I hit the lowest of the lows, forcing me to make a choice to leave this life or stay. At some point, my spiritual self intervened and I stayed. I realized that to hit rock bottom like that was a gift, with nowhere to go but upwards.

With many health professionals and my inner bravery, over time I recovered to be my best self. It was not easy; it required some hard looks at myself and how I allowed others to destabilize my emotions to the extent of the sum of my life.

One of the greatest things I learned for myself is to acknowledge that my feelings and thoughts matter and control the trajectory of my life. You are what you think, your actions, thoughts, and attitudes are vibrations that ensure you receive exactly that reality. If you wake up in a bad mood, then you can bet your whole day is going to be the same all day.

Reprograming my mind to reject the “Why me, Lord?” mindset to one of Gratitude was one of the greatest gifts I ever gave myself. With practice, I began to rethink and reframe situations by focusing on the positive and rejecting any thought that had me feeling like a victim.

It was a simple formula, in any given frustrating situation, I would take some deep breaths, blowing out body tension, and refused to think negative thoughts, all of them. As I breathed in, I focused on the ONE thing that was POSITIVE out of any given situation.

It was hard some days, but as I got more attached to positive thinking, I could see my life getting better, my vibration rose, and I began to experience the type of life I had only dreamed of.

My gift to my readers, on my Birthday and the opening of this website, are the three things I started with.

1. I began to look for good things, look for them, and appreciate it. In the beginning, it might have been that first sip of coffee that made my morning bearable. I thought about that and not that I was stuck going in at 6 am to work, Positive thoughts not negative.

2. I really absorbed that one thing that I was thankful for. I took a couple of breaths and let out my sadness and tension.

3. I then expressed my gratitude either silently to myself or to others out loud at the moment it happened. A spoken “thank you” goes a long way to healing. At the end of the day, I would list three things I was grateful for in my healing journal.

The practice of gratitude kept me focused in the moment, in the now. I allowed no time to think of past mistakes and regrets. Gratitude linked my brain to my heart and raised my emotional state and vibration to be able to live the fullest potential of this life. I celebrate this week that I survived with GRATITUDE.

I started Healing Pieces because I healed my broken pieces and want to assist those who are feeling tired, hurt, scared, unworthy, and lost in a crazy and chaotic world. You are not alone. You are worthy and loved.