“When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or you take them with gratitude”- Gilbert K. Chesterton
Happy are those people who take life day by day and are thankful for the little gifts of life. It goes without saying that appreciating things that we usually fail to take notice of can hugely determine our perspective on life and our overall attitude.
Gratitude has been rightly called the “seed of joy” since it makes life feel rich and abundant. Often we’re thankful for things that we make an effort to achieve. However, the best things in life are free, and building an appreciation for those things is what really makes life worth living!
We’re all lucky to enjoy these things which are abundantly given to us on a daily basis. Life would be meaningless without them and opening our eyes to notice them and be thankful for them opens our hearts to boundless joy and love.
“A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles”.
Happy are Those who Rejoice even in the Mundane
Happiness does not come from enjoying only the highs of life, but when you learn to love the everyday pace of life and see it as a gift in itself.
○ The Irony of “Existential Crisis”
A big part of the problem faced by our generation is a lack of interest in life, questioning our purpose and the meaning of our existence. This is known as having an “existential crisis“, and it’s common to hear even people leading extremely comfortable lives say it.
Believe it or not, this belief arises from a mindset that breeds dissatisfaction with whatever we have. However, the irony here is that the feeling that one is having an existential crisis in life can only arise when one already has his or her basic needs met.
Unless we were burdened by the fundamental needs of working hard to put food on the table, have a roof to have satisfying nap, etc, we wouldn’t even find the time to complain so much. The missing link here is gratitude for these basic blessings, which we have failed to acknowledge.
Remember that a mind that cannot rejoice in the ordinary will always find several things to complain about. Conversely, a mind that is thankful for it will always find more reasons to feel content and happy.
10 Best Things in Life We Need to Celebrate More!
In this article, we are focusing on 10 of the best things in life to celebrate it now more than ever. Acknowledge them, appreciate them, expand on them and let them be the reason you strive to live the best life for yourself and for others.
1. The Gift of Life
How many of us actually wake up from bed each day and say “Wow! I’m so thankful to see the sun shining through my blinds today”. A vast majority of us don’t even think of doing that, especially not with our current lifestyles.
Why? Well, we’re all too busy waking up to start assessing everything that could go wrong with the day, preparing ourselves, making to-do lists, etcetera. We don’t pause and start the day excited about the beauty of waking up again to another lovely day filled with opportunities for us.
The fact is that so many of us didn’t even get to see the light of another day and experience the joy of living it. Life is a gift and the fact that we get to wake up and plan the course of another day filled with love, laughter, and lessons is a privilege in itself!
2. Freedom of choice
We take this one for granted every day because we haven’t seen a time when we were told what to do. Living in a free country and having the freedom to choose to do whatever we want is a huge blessing.
We don’t owe anyone an explanation about how we choose to spend our day, what we eat, how we dress, and even the opinions we express. Imagine living in a time or in a place where we were bound by restrictions on all of these things.
Take a minute to build gratitude for all these little joys of life that we have absolute control over. The fact that we have endless choices to make and can switch things up whenever we want is liberty not enjoyed by everyone.
3. The Power of Our Thoughts
Everything we see around us is a construction of our thoughts. God has granted us a genius machine that develops and defines our entire reality for us – Our Mind.
However, man has been guilty of misusing this powerful weapon for the wrong reasons to create chaos, disruption, and sorrow. He has designed wars, stripped the earth of its resources, mistreated species inferior to it, and made his mind his worst enemy.
Our mind is one unit with our thoughts and so whatever we think is what we become. This is the basis of the Law of Attraction. Imagine how powerful God has made us by giving us a power greater than the Universe, which gives birth to all that we can imagine.
Taking this gift for granted is like defying the infinite possibilities of what the creative mind is capable of.
4. The Easy Times We Live In
The more we read history and talk to our older generations about the struggles they faced, the more relieved we feel to live in a radically different time.
We often get bored with the luxuries we have today because we haven’t gone through any adversities in order to enjoy them.
The Covid Pandemic has probably been a huge reality check for a majority of us; making us sit back and rethink our priorities. However, it still doesn’t compare to times in the past where medical aid was unavailable in the face of deadly diseases affecting millions.
Today, we are not burdened by immediate problems such as surviving a war, fighting for our lives, not having the means to communicate with loved ones, and fighting against such fatal diseases.
If we were to face even a fraction of all that our ancestors have dealt with, we would know the true cost of life and value the current times more than ever.
5. The Existence of Internet Connection
In tandem with the previous point, the boon of having an invention like the internet has been revolutionary for us. Whether it be connecting with people, learning a new language, researching any topic, or simply expanding our knowledge- the internet is always at our rescue.
However, we have managed to misuse a technology so eminent by using it to spread hate and negativity and letting it control and consume our lives entirely.
Ongoing cyber crimes, rising mental illnesses due to digital addictions, and a lack of interest in reality “offline” is a shameful outcome of an innovation so brilliant.
With an interconnected network like this with such a massive global outreach, it rests on our creativity to use this system for furthering human potential in the most responsible way possible.
6. The Warmth of a Home
Having a nice, cozy, and loving environment to come back to each day is something worthy of our thanks and appreciation. Not everyone has a space to take shelter in or the comfort that comes with owning a place of your own.
Countless homeless people are roaming the streets without any sense of belonging. Unlike us, they don’t have the choice of heading back to a place that promises a warm bed and a cooked, nourishing meal.
It’s easy for us to forget how incredibly lucky we are for such a sense of security in our lives, but it’s undeniable how challenging life would be if we had no place to take refuge in.
Also, people who have to spend time away from their homes for work or other necessary commitments can vouch for how valuable and irreplaceable a warm and comforting place like home is.
7. A Good Night’s Sleep
We all know that rising from a night of poor sleep makes us tired, unproductive, lethargic, and just overall cranky. It’s not hard to guess then that a good night’s slumber is not to be taken lightly or for granted.
Yet we often swap a full night’s rest for working overnight, staying glued to our screens, partying till the morning, and more. What we don’t realize is that nothing really beats the recuperative effects of good sleep, fresh air in the morning and its overall importance in how we function.
Today, we are more focused on spending millions on creams, pills, and treatments to ensure health and good skin, completely disregarding how potent the reparative effects of restful sleep are.
It’s not just a satisfying nap that boosts our energy but in fact a powerhouse of benefits that cannot be outrun or substituted.
8. Feeling the Healing Energy of the Sun
The Sun has been known to heal man holistically throughout all of history. In the past 50 years or so, we have become increasingly avoidant of sunlight, to the extent of losing out on the vital life-sustaining benefits it has to offer.
In his book “The Healing Sun”, by Richard Hobday, the author talks about “heliotherapy,”; explaining how the Sun was known to treat diseases like cancer, skin illnesses, etc.
Today, we are spending billions on treatments and medications for these diseases, completely disregarding the potential of this natural healing ball of energy that is effortlessly available to us at no cost.
Our ancestors knew how sacred this energy was and even worshipped the sun for its life-giving powers. Today, a startling majority of us suffer from a deficiency of Vitamin D because we’ve chosen to shut ourselves indoors and avoid sunlight as much as possible.
If we were to make sunbathing a daily ritual in our routines, we’d be astounded by how drastically our mental and physical health could improve.
9. The Company of Loved Ones
Having a support group of people in the form of friends and family can literally make or break a person. People who love and cherish us immensely can sometimes be the very ones we take for granted the most until we lose them.
Loneliness has often been touted as a silent killer, as the feeling of isolation have been known to result in serious dementia and depression. Not everyone has someone to call during tough times, parents to give them a sense of security, or a loved one to fall back on.
The warm fuzzy feeling one gets from being reassured that we always have someone looking out for us, someone to share our excitement and dreams with, is irreplaceable. Most people do not share such close bonds with others for various reasons, which can have serious mental and emotional implications.
We must know how to celebrate the relationships that nurture and sustain us and reciprocate accordingly.
10. The Joy to Feel
Life is colorful solely because of our ability to feel all these emotions that make us human. Without this powerful reality, we would be reduced to mere robots living a very plain, mechanical existence.
There are plenty of mentally challenged and physically disabled people who wish to experience life the way we do, but unfortunately cannot. A blind person cannot see the freshly cut grass or the mountain peaks and feel the joy of life like we can.
Similarly, a deaf person cannot hear soulful music or won’t have a favorite song that makes their hearts sing and a handicapped person might not be able to run in freely and let loose whenever they wish to!
This is the poignant reality of life and knowing how blessed we are to experience this rainbow of emotions on a daily basis is a magical gift in itself.
A look at the Best Things in Life we tend to Lose Sight Of
“Appreciate everything, even the ordinary. Especially the ordinary”- Pema Chodron
Being satisfied and grateful for all of the seemingly obvious best things in life is the first rule of sustained happiness. This is what makes for abundant, wholesome, and inspired living.
The ability to think and feel, the freedom to make everyday choices and even the technology we’re so used to are all amazing things that we’re lucky to enjoy. The company of our loved ones, a warm home to come back to, and the incredible life-sustaining sun that nourishes us daily are miracles that should inspire awe in us.
Life automatically becomes a lot easier when we live in recognition and appreciation of even the little things like good food, fresh air and sleep. A mind that is already enriched with such abundance is wired to seek positivity, growth, and lessons from all that life has to offer!
