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Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, and regardless of how you’re feeling…
Take a moment to forget about all the places you think you’re heading in the future, where you’d like to be one day, and how you wish to eventually feel about yesterday and all the days in the past, whether good, bad, or ugly.
Put EVERYTHING else behind you just for this moment and then shift your focus onto only what’s here in front of you right now in this present moment.
Okay, now think of one thing, whether big or small that you feel grateful for. This could be something as simple as the magnificence of your own breath, or how there’s a roof over your head, even if it’s not your own roof. Have you eaten? Did you share a sense of connection with a fellow human today even if it was only on social media or online?
I’ve found there is always at least ONE thing to feel grateful for, and it’s usually something we’ve taken for granted as we fall deeper into the rabbit hole of our never-ending pursuit for “more” or “better.” We desperately strive to fulfill the bottomless pit of petty desires jotted down on an endless checklist our mind constructed from its infinite amount of shallow selling points that emptily promise that only when you attain “this” or “that,” you will be happy.
So you frantically fry and burn yourself out trying to reach this destination called “happiness,” only to realize once you’ve acquired what it was you were so desperately chasing, that there isn’t a destination and there never was. Once you get “there,” you will realize there isn’t any “there” to arrive to. There is no endpoint, and you’ll always want and feel you need more.
Everything you need to feel content is literally right here, right now about who you are and your life, and this all begins by cultivating a sense of gratitude for what you have now, especially the little things. Seek out and find appreciation, not for only the beauty surrounding you, but also within yourself and all that you’ve accomplished too.
So just for a moment, I encourage you to take a break from all the thinking, striving, the trying, the healing, the self improvement and even from maintaining continual positivity, and just become aware of feeling a sense of GRATITUDE for this life and all of the endless possibilities and opportunities that lie before you now.
It’s never too late to change your life for the better and it’s never too late to remember who you are, your capabilities, and passions. Passion isn’t something that’s discovered. It’s something that’s remembered when the person who’s been buried under other people’s needs courageously re-emerges and starts living authentically. The person that you’ve always hoped you would be doesn’t need to be found or discovered, they’re already within you waiting for you begin loving yourself the way you have always wanted to be loved by someone else.
You are not bound to your past, and you are under absolutely no obligation to be who you were yesterday, last week, last month, a year ago and definitely not five years ago. There’s no ultimatum requiring you to make the same mistakes you did when you were younger. It’s okay to want different things, new places, new people, and seek out all of these things on new and different horizons. It’s up to you to foster the belief that you are never too old, too jaded, or too broken to take the first step towards change.
True self-worth isn’t based only on what you do, so you know you’ve really changed when on the days you feel like you’ve accomplished nothing, you still believe and know you’re worth something. This is when you know your self-worth is the real deal.
Every new day offers the chance, choice and ability to start fresh and begin anew…and it’s never too late to take advantage of this. Everything worthwhile in life takes time, and the longer you wait for something the more appreciation you wind up having for it when it finally arrives, knowing you’ve earned it. If it’s worth having, then it’s definitely worth waiting for too. You are worth the wait.
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Photo Credit: Pixabay