Thanksgiving is a month away, and in honor of that day of thanks, a friend of mine, Melody, started an event page on Facebook called “30 Days of Gratitude”.  It’s a place where people can go each day for a month leading up to Thanksgiving, to post, write, and discuss the things they are grateful for.

Today is Day One.  I was reminded about the event as soon as I logged in to Facebook, which was practically as soon as I woke up.   And even though it’s one of the first things I did this morning,  after a stretch, a trip to the bathroom, and pouring a cup of coffee, I realized that I had already been grateful for so many things.

I was grateful for waking up to another day. I was grateful for being able to put my two feet on the floor and walk.  I was grateful for my toasty warm house.  I was grateful for my girls’ angelic sleeping faces. I was grateful that John had programmed the coffee to be ready for me.

I didn’t write anything down on the page, because I didn’t want to say the first things I thought of, the obvious ones. So I started to move through the day with thoughts of gratitude in mind.

Pouring my coffee. I am grateful for this warm delicious coffee.

Making breakfast for my girls.  I am grateful for this food.

Kissing John and Maggie good bye.  I am grateful for their love.

Walking Shannon to school. I am grateful for this moment with her.

Sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Parkway.  I am grateful that I have a job to drive to.

Teaching yoga to kids. I am grateful to Debby and the Newark Yoga Movement.

Sitting here and writing about it.   I am grateful for time to sit and write.

I could do this all day long!   I sometimes do.  When I focus on the things I’m grateful for, the other things become less important.  The annoyances, frustrations, inconveniences, the disappointments of life don’t matter as much when we concentrate on all that we are grateful for.

Living in gratitude makes life happier,  it makes life easier, it makes life better.  Try it!   Each time you do something,  see something, hear something, be grateful for it and state your gratitude to your self!  Just say “I am grateful for this” as often as you can throughout your day.  It can be transformational.

If you want to practice your gratitude publicly,  you can join the event on my Facebook page.  Or you can go to Melody’s blog  http://yogamatunrolled.blogspot.com/.

I think it’s an awesome idea.  And I’m grateful that she did it!