What can gratitude do for YOU?

On a scale from 1 to 10, how grateful are you? If you could chop up your day into little bits, how much time is taken by sincere moments of being thankful? What does your relationship with gratitude look like and what does that word even mean to you?

I just spent 30 days exploring and consciously cultivating my ability to be grateful and to MEAN it.

I’m not UNgrateful. I mean, I always say “thank you”. I’m very polite. But does that mean I am truly grateful?

For example, when asked on the spot to think of something I’m grateful for in a yoga class, do I feel that “thank you” in my bones? Does my entire body sit in that moment of appreciation even after it has gone? Um, maybe, maybe not.

Well I decided I was going to find out.

Starting on Jan. 4, for a full month I posted one statement of gratitude to my Facebook and Twitter walls every day – that way, I would be held fully accountable for my postings (yes, by the FB police and the FB stalker fans I imagine I have)!

So Day 1. I was grateful for the wisdom of my girlfriends. I reflected on the amazing advice I was constantly receiving from them, and it struck me how brilliant and wise friends can be when you really listen.

Day 2. I was grateful for new faces and familiar faces at my yoga classes. Still being a relatively new teacher, I couldn’t have been happier to have their support, so I really sat in that moment of pure happiness.

Day 9. “I’m grateful to have my furnace working again after a 48 hour hiatus”. Never had I been so thankful to have heat. Something so simple, yet had I not been doing this challenge, I probably would not have thought twice about when it came back on. IN FACT, I probably would have thought “stupid landlord, why is he such an incompetent lazy idiot, everything keeps breaking. I want compensation for the hassle”. But instead, I was happy to have heat.

Day 17. I’m grateful for hip-hop music. Enough said.

Day 19. I’m grateful for snuggles with Trapper.

As the days went on, I realized I couldn’t wait to post my gratitude statement. It was something I looked forward to every day!

And then end of January hit. This, I have to say was the lowest point in my month. For about 4 days, I really struggled with finding things to be grateful for. My energy level was so low, my body was tired, work was ramping up, things weren’t going as I had planned, and I felt like I had a million things on my plate. Gratitude was getting tough.

One morning during that period, I had a catch up breakfast planned with my dad. To be honest, the last thing I wanted or needed to do was add another item to “my agenda” for the week. Though I love my dad VERY dearly, I felt stressed just thinking about having a leisurely breakfast on a very busy workday.

Needless to say, I went.

And as a result, I felt one of the deepest moments of gratitude that I had during the whole challenge.

I told myself, “Courtney, you are here with dad, the office is not here, you aren’t going to find your new apartment in this moment, you aren’t going to make your yoga lesson plan here, why think about that, you are here”.

So I looked at him, and let my heart open. I let the breakfast go on much longer than I had planned. I let myself cry in front of him from exhaustion. I let myself feel.

And as I continued to feel, I started to feel a sense of lightness. I realized I was feeling sincere happiness for having the eternal love of my parents. I was feeling gratitude.

As a result, I left with happy tears in my eyes for that moment of reflection. And a post to write:

Day 24. I’m grateful for heart to heart chats over breakfast with my dad :)

I left thinking, when I can say I’m grateful for heart to heart chats with someone I love, then searching for an apartment, sending out those emails, or writing that report, don’t seem like such big deals.

I gave my dad a hug goodbye, and it wasn’t just a thank you, it was a THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.

As my month drew to a close, I continued my posts and I saw more and more people joining the challenge. Every day I would log on and my wall would be speckled with “Day 3. Today I’m grateful for…”, “Day 17. I am grateful for…”. It literally made my heart jump, I was so THRILLED!

As my final post for Day 30 I wrote, “Today I am grateful for being witness to all the gratitude and inspirational stories that came from this challenge”. The number of people who reached out to me, letting me know what it meant for them to be a part of it, was amazing.

Being one who didn’t grow up in a religious household and has not adhered to many rituals before, I realized that the 30 Day Gratitude Challenge became more than just posting statement or funny remarks on a wall. It really became a ritual – it became an exercise in strengthening optimism and hope. It became a ritual that others became a part of.

The challenge made me feel so connected to the others that were participating (and still are participating – keep going guys!!)

Knowing that every single day, we were all sharing the exact same human emotion, was exquisitely moving and powerful. And I miss it now!

And so, as I end my story, I open it up to you and your experiences with gratitude. I welcome your thoughts and reflections on the challenge or on gratitude in general. How do you experience it? How might it change your perception of situations or people in your life? What can gratitude make possible for you?

With lots of love (and eternal gratitude ☺),
Court xo