365 Gratitude Project- Restart and Refocus

It has been far too long since I worked on my gratitude blog.

75 days was a good consistent stretch, right? I guess I'm going to have to keep going into 2015 to get all 365 days.

The intent of this year of gratitude was to look at, focus on, and remember all the things in my life I am thankful for whether it's family, friends, health, material things, simple pleasures, or everyday annoyances that make me feel alive, especially when days are tough.
You know, things like this:

Then life happened, and those busy days, upset days, sad days, tough situations, doubts and fears all made it far too easy to forget about the gratitude and all the good around me.

Also worthy to note, I've changed dramatically in the past couple of years. Many of my viewpoints, thoughts on my beliefs, religion, and the world have all changed. Once somebody starts the process of analyzing beliefs, one thing tends to snowball into another creating more changes than originally planned. Although this process is necessary and good, I'll admit, I've hit some pretty intense cynical and bitter spots (I probably should have stayed off Facebook during these times because every other post/article/status made me sad or angry and seemed to completely hijack my day).

And while stuck in that cynicism and bitterness, I unintentionally set these gratitude blog posts aside.

(how easy it is to get completely stuck in those negative feelings and thoughts, unable to see the good)

Then, today my sister-in-law introduced me to a song "Thankful" by Josh Groban that I hadn't heard before.

Beyond his overall insanely amazing voice, the song was surprisingly a good reminder for me. "...and even though this world needs so much more, there's so much to be thankful for."

Oops! I had put all my focus on that first part and all that was wrong with the world, my life, and everything around it, completely forgetting about that second super important part. I realized I have been spending far too much energy focusing on the anger, the bitterness, the cynicism, and my own life frustrations lately. I do think it's still important to analyze those things, and those emotions are sometimes necessary to help bring change, but in my life right now, I think it's about time to make a switch and once again focus more on the gratitude.

Thank you, my wonderful sister-in-law, for the reminder. Here's to a restart and a refocus on the amazing things in my life and the world around me.

Back to the Gratitude Project...