With Thanksgiving passing by this week, gratitude is dancing in the air. Perhaps you have been spending time with your family and appreciating Aunt Sally's cooking skills or Uncle Bob's bad jokes that make you laugh anyways. Maybe you're thankful for a full plate of food, a body that allows you to workout after you've gorged yourself on pie, or even those gorgeous, blue skies that appeared on that special day of thanks!
We often focus our gratitude on the things that are quite easy to appreciate. It's pretty easy to be grateful for family, friends, opportunities, material belongings, etc. But what about those things that we don't often think of? What about those events and people who left you feeling a little broken? What about those experiences that seemed harmful at the time but ended up building you into the wonderful person you are today? Those things are the muse of this blog post. So, let's take a few moments to be grateful for them.
I'll start. This semester, while holistically wonderful, has thrown me quite a few curve balls. While dealing with them, I felt vulnerable, confused, powerless, and just a little bit broken. I couldn't understand why some of these things were happening...We often fall victim to the belief that things are completely within our control, and while that's a nice thought, it's not entirely true. That was the difficult truth I had to learn this year. We can work our hardest, smile our biggest, run our fastest, and do all things with our entire heart and soul...but sometimes, it still isn't enough.
During these tough times, I relied on family and friends, searched for answers everywhere I could, summoned my creative juices, and used a lot of time to introspect and improve myself. This is where the appreciation comes in. You may currently be in the midst of a difficult situation, one that doesn't quite make sense to you, one that makes you feel worthless or vulnerable, one that throws you off your game a little. We all go through them, and I'm not here to tell you that they're easy or quick to improve. In fact, I'm here to tell you the opposite and explain why that is the exact reason to be grateful for them.
Just think of your biceps for a second. Let's say that you've made the decision to start working out in order to get a little stronger. You start going to the gym every other day to ease into the routine. After each gym session, your muscles feel sore, tired, and weak. In fact, each workout is literally causing your muscles to tear, and during your days off, that muscle rebuilds itself even stronger than it was before. The same is true for your mind, body, and spirit. Each heartbreak you experience builds a little more scar tissue, each rejection builds up a little more resilience, and each failure builds a little more grit. So, while those gym sessions may leave you feeling weak and tired, they make you that much stronger. Remember this whenever you hit a few bumps in the road. These experiences aren't here to break you. They aren't here to ruin your day, your week, or even your month. They're here to make you stronger, tougher, more resilient, and better able to handle the next challenge...So feel grateful. Feel appreciative. Feel blessed when you feel broken. Maybe next time, you'll be able to pick up those 12.5 pound weights instead of the 10s...and that wouldn't have been possible without those hours at the gym.
Quote Of The Day: "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
-Kelly Clarkson (& Frederich Nietzsche)
Peace, Love, + Happiness,
Deviva