I so clearly remember walking through a shopping center in Stellenbosch the night after I got engaged and asking my brother if he noticed how everyone was looking at my engagement ring. {Okay you can have a little chuckle now} Fast forward 5 years and this past weekend I was running along the promenade with my baby in her pram, and I couldn’t help but notice all the prams and mums with babies on the promenade. My mum pointed out how mums and babies had always been on the promenade, I just hadn’t been looking out for them.

Isn’t it crazy how when we focus on one thing, we seem to block out everything else?

This couldn’t be more applicable in everyday life. Our brains are often more tuned into what is wrong in our lives (and in our selves) than what is going right.

I get that sometimes circumstances do suck, and its hard to not want to roll up in a ball, or dig a hole and hide in it. But truth be told, you in the fetal position actually creates further problems for your family, as they find they keep tripping over you, and for the most part your husband could think of nothing better than kicking you over the wall when you dwell in your pity party.

Introducing the habit that changed my life. Gratitude.

Gratitude, doesn’t change the circumstance but what it does do is that it wipes clear the lens through which you see the world. It reminds us of the incredible life we do live, it awakens our heart to all the good in our lives!!

For years I took all the good in my life for granted. Don’t get me wrong I’ve always been a positive person, but I failed to value the life I lived, and those that filled my life. It took trying to fall preggers for 18 months to wake me up to the power of gratitude. Not a day goes by now when I don’t name or thank Jesus for those that fill my life, my health and all the other things that make my life worth living.

How do we implement something like gratitude?

A simple and effective way to implement this habit in your life is to write down 3 things you’re grateful for every morning, in a notebook or on a chalkboard in your home. I have even had clients who have decided to chat with their kids over dinner and get them to name 3 things they’re grateful for.

It is not happy people who are thankful. It’s thankful people who are HAPPY.