Frankly, it’s a miracle you’re here. But we’ll get to that later :)

These causes and effects seem to govern our life, our environment, and the decisions we make. It’s your place in society, your chosen identity, your fortune, or your detriment. You either play the victim of consequence or the survivor who makes good decisions.

By continuing to play out the ‘hand we are dealt,’ we continue to perpetuate the cycles we were born into. So, do we really have a choice in life?

I started practicing gratitude in 2017 to feel happier. On a daily basis, I would write about 5 things I found myself grateful for.

Yep, sounds pretty crunchy.

But the evidence for the benefits of practicing gratitude is compelling. By simply recalling and feeling appreciation for something, we trigger a cascade of physiological and emotional changes in ourselves.

It tells your parasympathetic nervous system you are safe to thrive and relax. Dopamine and serotonin increase, causing you to feel happy and in the flow. Gratitude predictably and consistently creates a good sense that “everything is ok.”

It’s in this warning system reboot that we find a way to alter our mindset in a fairly easy and effective way.

The most surprising thing about gratitude is that it will give you the power to interrupt your current series of causes and effects and make a better decision for the future.

It’s like pushing pause on all the things dominating your focus right now and setting aside all dramas and moods for something real and authentic. Within seconds of practicing gratitude, your mind relaxes into ease, your body calms, and a subtle light warms what you see and feel.

With gratitude, you interrupt the path you were on for something inevitably better.

Your next conversation will be engaging. Your next insight will appear with ease. Your next action will be consciously made.

When practiced once or twice, gratitude will feel pretty good. When practiced daily, you will change the course of your life for the better. It’s a grandiose and prescriptive statement, but it’s been true in my life.

The simple nature of gratitude makes it accessible to us at any moment; the powerful nature of gratitude gives us a tool to change our lives.

Here are some things you can be grateful for right now:

• You are alive. After billions of years of random chemical interactions in a seemingly endless space, you exist on a rock barreling through the darkness at millions of miles per hour.
• You are reading this. That means you have access to technology, you live in a society that has the infrastructure to support the internet, and you have the time.
• You have a purpose. Your life has meaning. If not, you simply wouldn’t be here.

And I am grateful for you and your time spent with my words.