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Making gratitude a lifestyle

I promise you these are not preachy words on a busy Thanksgiving morning. But, it’s that time of the year when it gets colder outside but warmer inside the house, surrounded by our loved ones. It’s also the season when hope and gratitude find a place in people’s hearts and homes. We all have our own struggles that we are facing every day and sometimes life is so hard that it’s a challenge to be grateful. But in happier times, I do put a few moments of my daily stress away and feel grateful for everyone and everything that makes my life worthwhile by bringing joy and adding value to it. Often during Thanksgiving, I have been drawn into discussions about how this season of giving makes people think beyond themselves. It’s important to count our blessings and be thankful for a lot of things that we take for granted otherwise. I recently fell into a discussion with my student friend Zach Freeland. “Finding value is a lot harder when you’re more fortunate,” he says. I was amazed at his words which got us talking about the topic, making us jump from college education to core values that drive us to be who we are. He further elaborated about how he feels fortunate to go to college and his heart bleeds when he sees other students his age, struggling to make ends meet. He told me about his granddad putting money aside for all his grandkids, to fund their college education. While he is grateful for his good fortune, he feels a pang of guilt when he sees those who are less fortunate. I was astonished at the meaningful thoughts that ran in his vibrant, young mind. His connectedness to lesser privileged students, coupled with gratitude for the comforts that he had been blessed with, warmed my heart. It felt strange that I have a similar conversation with myself almost every single day. I told him that I had the exact same thought process about myself, but from the other side of the grass. When I see scores of women dressed in business casuals walking to their plush offices in Uptown Charlotte, I battle with my thoughts, fully convinced that given my educational qualifications and years of experience, I could easily be one of them, stopped only by my visa status. Having said that, I have realized that living in a new country has shaped my personality differently. I have learned to welcome and to be grateful a whole new set of experiences that I might not have had otherwise. I now embrace uncertainty like a blanket in the cold and enjoy the ride, no matter how bumpy it is! I think gratitude is certainly one of the healthiest human emotions. Learning to be thankful for what we have and realizing its significance is undoubtedly the secret to turning your life around and living in positive abundance. Echoing Zach’s thoughts, I now value what I have, and I am thankful for it. I am convinced that gratitude is not a perspective, it is a lifestyle. Happy Thanksgiving! This piece was originally published on momspresso.com Here's the link https://www.momspresso.com/parenting/writersmindsurabhi

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