“Joie de vivre” meaning “joy of living” is one of my favorite French sayings. It conjures up images of happiness, laughter and joyfulness and is ultimately what most people strive to achieve in this life.
I think its fair to say that many of us have ideas of what we would like or need to be happy – but then find ourselves constantly working towards eventually getting there one day. But what if… we don’t actually need anything to make us happy… what if happiness is a state of being which comes hand in hand with another state of being… gratitude.
If you take a step back, close your eyes, and think about everything you have to be grateful in just your body alone…. your beating heart, your breathing lungs, your seeing eyes, your hearing ears, your sounding voice, your moving limbs, your wiggling toes…. before you have a chance to open your eyes you will already have a world of things to be grateful for!
I was very fortunate to have attended a years training at the School of Energy Healing, and during that year one of our tasks was to start a “Gratitude Diary”. Every morning we needed to acknowledge at least 10 things in our lives that we were grateful for. It was a funny experience because initially we all felt like we really had to think about it – but that was the whole point of a process that really did change our lives!
I truly believe that inviting gratitude into your life on a daily basis is one of the best possible things you can do for your overall health, vitality and enjoyment in life! It changes your perception, enables you to really enjoy and appreciate things, and with this all comes a deep seated contentment which no material could ever bring.
Until next time, remember… “The gift of gratitude” enables “the joy of living”
