BE THANKFUL AND GRATEFUL! ...BUT WHY?

What are the beni's of being oh-so-thankful for what we have? 

Have you ever hung out with a constant complainer? They're straight up energy vampires. 

Eff that ess. Don't be her. 

According to those who are into the law of attraction, you get what you think about. 

The concept is if you often think on what you're grateful for, then you'll attract even more things or events to be grateful for. (BTW, I'm so grateful for Lambos.)

But also, it's really good for your health. Low blood pressure, less stress and anxiety, and for those of us who use food to self-soothe and comfort, gratitude is a diet. 

SHIT IS COOL

When Oprah made gratitude journaling a thing circa nineteen-ninety-bitches-still-in-high-school, I didn’t totally get it. 

Writing a list of things to be grateful for can feel like an "in order to". 

For example: in order to attract my desires and get what I want, I must first be grateful and be in the “vibrational energy of gratitude. (Do X to get Y.) 

And then when you feel obligated to be grateful for certain things like toilet paper, running water, underwear, etc. (because hashtag first world humility) it can have the reverse affect for what you intended.

Remove the obligation and instead appreciate what you truly appreciate and you've unlocked the secret sauce of gratitude-gravy. 

*Glug, glug, glug.* 

A simple reframe: what you perceive as cool is actually appreciation, and appreciation is gratitude and thankfulness. Or at least it’s in the same ballpark.

How cool is it that you finally, in all your years of searching, found a coffee that you love waking up to every morning? 

How cool is it that you don't have to physically take you paycheck to the bank, but instead its deposited into your bank account automatically? No waiting in bank lines. Now, from the comfort of your own bed, you can blow all your cash at 1 AM on random-ass trinkets you've filtered as "Prime" items. 

How cool is it that your friend text you an inspirational meme at the perfect time, just as you were about to rage-quit? 

Cool is awesome. 

Awe is the root word of awesome. 

Awe according to the online dictionary is "an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like" 

Sweet, err, I mean cool. 

HIGHLIGHTER

Now look at being grateful as a mental highlighter. 

You can go about your day highlighting all the shit you think is rad/cool/awesome. 

I'll use my friend Amy as an example. Amy loooovveeess flowers and vegetation. I once heard that she pulled her car over just to get out and take pictures of a bush alongside the road while her kids waited in the car. 

As coocoo as Amy sounds, the woman actually has her shit together. In fact, she's one of the most loving, compassionate, friend-attracting, goal-manifesting women I know. And I think it's because she's a master at highlighting the simple things that she's grateful for. 

We all have brain-highlighters (Uh, wut? I’m feeling those Tropic Thunder "brain movie" vibes right now).

Our mind highlights certain things repeatedly, even without us being consciously aware of it. Your brain is on auto-pilot, self focusing and using its damn purple highlighter (btw, purple highlighters - why?) on whatever it wants. 

Feeling like Miss Cranky Pants today? Probably because you're brain-highlighter that is being controlled by the turd-slinging-monkey-brain that exists as your default state of mind is highlighting shit to feel cranky about.

How can you drop the negativity-turd-thoughts and toss about happy-confetti instead? 

This is where you want to take a page out of Positive-Polly's book and highlight the good things happening throughout your day (and life) even though you'd rather positively punch Polly right in the pie hole.

Highlight what you love and 'K.I.S.S.' (Keep it simple [Sweetie]): 

Highlight #1: Your favorite coffee mug that holds everything from your AM wake-up-juice to PM-night-night-juice. 

Highlight #2: That you washed your favorite underwear last night so you could wear them for today’s big interview. 

Highlight #3: That you found this blogpost. #yourewelcome 

Highlight #4: You can be thankful that your dog loves you unconditionally ...because your boss sure as hell doesn't. 

Being grateful and thankful is cool. 

Cool begets more cool shit. 

Fully embody gratitude and expect to shift from disempowerment to empowerment. 

It'll help you a) feel better, and b) have more badass experiences. It's the law, apparently. 

What's some of your favorite cool shit? Comment below.