Be grateful!

Anyone who knows me, knows that podcast are my shit! And one of the reoccurring themes I hear no matter which one I’m listening to is….everyone is extremely thankful no matter their situation! All of the hosts, co-hosts, guests or whoever it is they are constantly expressing gratitude for something. Now my grandmom always told me to be thankful…but of course with life’s experiences you begin to form that list of things you’re willing to accept and those things you aren’t willing to take. And I believe that with that we sometimes block blessings because we don’t realize that we spend so much time concentrating on protecting the things we like that we forget to learn from those dislikes!

One quote that stuck out from one of the shows was, “gratitude has no but…”. I didn’t get it at first but I continued to listen and eventually they explained it in full and it blew my mind! Granted it was a simple explanation but it made perfect sense. A lot of people including myself whenever someone asks what we’re grateful for we say “I’m grateful for _______ but…” if there’s a but you’re not truly grateful! There’s a lot in this life to be grateful for that are outside of the norms. And I realized the more grateful I’ve become the simpler life has become.

This is all after my understanding of gratitude changed…like I said before my understanding of being thankful or showing gratitude was strictly superficial. To say thank you and but not necessarily feel it…is a bitch! Especially when you’re expecting whatever it was that you received…and giving an empty thank you is a horrible thing but I feel like we’ve all done it. Now, just like anything else once you know better you have to do better! And it starts internally….because at the end of the day no one can fix you but you! Nothing grows from the outside in! So the first step I took to solving this problem is allowing myself to data dumb what I’d previously known to give room to a new way of thinking.

Now a days I often remind myself that I should be grateful for where I am in that very moment because it’s all a part of the bigger plan! The odds may not be favorable all the time but it’s something we have to go through to get to where we’re supposed to be…and even in that we should show gratitude to the universe!

Assalamu Alaykum.