Gratitude is an amazing stress reducer. Feeling out of control and freaked out? Stop and notice what you are thankful for. When you focus on what’s working great in your life it keeps your attention on what you want as opposed to what you don’t want. There is an amazing power in this.
Often we don’t realize what we are grateful for until it’s gone. Daily I am thankful for my family, my health and my business. I will work in the coming year on focusing on the things in my life that I enjoy but often fail to notice. Here’s what happened:
On New Year’s Eve our son noticed water leaking in the basement. My husband and our friend soon discovered a leak in the hot water heater. Off it went – no more hot water for the long weekend. Okay, I was immediately grateful that we caught the leak before there was any real damage. But soon I became very grateful for hot water (which I had previously enjoyed and not really noticed). I soon realized this is a “first world problem”… I really had little to complain about – much of the world lives without hot water (or more importantly clean water).
The comforts that I take for granted, such as our dishwasher (I thought it just heated the cold water – I was wrong) and our washing machine (even on the cold setting somehow it didn’t want to work without the hot water) are now on my grateful list.
There were certainly some benefits in going without a hot water heater. I saved water during my speed showers. Our daughter got to spend more time with her grandmother while she went in search of a hot shower. Most importantly, I will look for something new each day (previously ignored) that I am grateful for.
My attention on gratitude during our hot water outage (and not on how long it takes to get hypothermia in a frrreezing cold shower) may have contributed to the water heater getting fixed in record time. What’s on your grateful list?
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