What about when you're having trouble feeling grateful?

The Christmas season is here. So talk of gratitude is EVERYWHERE!!!

There are gratitude challenges, the Christmas movies filled with love & miracles have started, FB is filled with #blessed, there's couples & love & family galore.

YOU GET IT...

You know it helps you to be grateful. It feels good to be grateful. But sometimes it's really fucking hard to be grateful(especially when it feels like nothing is going your way).

Last year at this time, that's exactly how I felt.

I was heartbroken. My relationship of 10 years had ended (I did not see that coming).
I was selling almost everything I owned so I could move home to live with my mom while I figured out my next step (I really liked my stuff. I worked hard for those things).
My laptop had just been stolen(I had to run my business from my phone).

There were other things too, but this all happened in ONE MONTH.
I felt like Wyle E Coyote the moment he realizes he's gone way off the cliff & falls.
I was beyond depressed. I was angry. I felt like a failure. I stopped taking new clients. My bank account was negative. 

The thought of being grateful for this shitshow that was my life pissed me off.

So I get it. Sometimes you are so in the middle of it, that you can't see an out. It can be hard to see the good in what feels like an endless stream of bad. Sometimes you're scared to look for something good because you feel like that will get taken as well.

When it rains it pours.

People love that phrase. Especially around shit situations. But it works the other way too. 

Start by finding something good. Even a little bit good. Even if it feels impossible, it's in there somewhere. Open yourself to the possibility.

Yes, I was alone & the person I saw myself spending the rest of my life with was gone & I had no idea what my future looked like anymore.

Yes, I was selling & giving away all the things I had worked really hard for so I could move home (a place I hadn't lived in 20 years) with basically nothing. Was not where I saw myself the year before. (Hell, I didn't see it 2 months before).

Yes I felt like I had lost everything good in my life, so what was there to be grateful for?

I still had my truck. Which was big, I could still go places. I wasn't stuck waiting for someone to take me anywhere.

I didn't have any household bills. I could pay off some debt & rebuild my bank accounts.

I didn't have anyone to think about but me. For the first time since I was 17, I didn't have a partner or pet that I had to consider. And I didn't really have any stuff. All I kept was my office, bedroom & kitchen stuff(well, most of it). I could move anywhere. I could do anything. I could get a job in Europe & travel. I could housesit my way across the country. 

I could do whatever the fuck I WANTED TO DO, because I no longer had the excuses of...
Who would watch my fur baby? What would I do with all my stuff? Would my partner feel left out or lonely?

Start small. Find 1 thing to feel grateful about. And FEEL the gratitude. It doesn't matter if it's you had a good hair day, found a $1 in your jeans, got to take a shower uninterrupted, have heat in your house, were able to put gas in your car...

Just find that thing. 

MAYBE TOMORROW YOU'LL HAVE 2 THINGS.

If you're going through a tough time, leave a comment or send me an email and tell me about it or  book a free call with me. You're never alone (even though it can feel that way).