Grateful
/grate·ful
Dictionary result for grateful
/ˈɡrātfəl/
adjective
feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness; thankful.
"I'm very grateful to you for all your help"
synonyms:
thankful, filled with gratitude, appreciative
If I'm honest, not a word I'm very comfortable with. 2019 is all about self-improvement for me, one baby step at a time. Gratitude is an area of weakness for me, for sure. I'd like to say that it isn't that I don't appreciate things, but rather I just have a hard time showing it. But admitting my mistakes is the first step. I'm not a very grateful person. I take things and people for granted - a lot. I don't intend to and I know how badly that makes people feel and reflects on me. But, if I'm honest, I've struggled with gratitude since I was very young. We all have a faults, right?
Feeling and showing more gratitude in my life, especially to the people around me who deserve it, is absolutely a top priority for me this year. Some of the appreciation I owe is more than long overdue. All of the mindfulness literature and influencers out there preach gratitude as a way of not only bettering your relationships with others, but also bettering your mental health and relationship with your life and yourself.
Because I'm a much better writer than I am speaker, I thought what better place to begin than a letter? An open letter to everyone in my life that deserves some appreciation for what they've done for me. I'm a firm believer in what you put out into the universe comes back to you in spades. So, here's a little warm, fuzzy thank you to a few folks who've earned it. And for you - thanks for reading, as always, I really appreciate it.
Being grateful comes in many forms, all of which I need to work on. Everything from being more appreciative of the things people do for me, to being more polite when someone makes an effort to be nice and doesn't quite succeed. I'm learning to appreciate time, things, places, and people more as I get older. I'm lucky to be where I am with who I am and I'm more grateful than ever for my path that got me here.
Who could you say thank you to right now that deserves to hear it?