As 2019 ended, I was not in a good place in life.  My mind was full of dark and sad thoughts.  Despair was my constant companion.  I was aware changes were needed in my life.  My resources were very limited, there was much I could not do.  However I knew I could seek a beautiful state of being.  Peace was something I knew I could seek.  I knew that there was much to be grateful for in my life.  So I started writing about things I was grateful.  For a while I published a daily short blogpost about something I was grateful for.  This simple daily practice of gratitude unlocked new positive mindsets that is changing my life.

For years I had heard people talk about practicing gratitude.  It is only recently that I started to think about what that even meant.  For me, the idea of “practicing” something means some sort of repeated act.  Practice also to me implies some measure of effort.  I knew I wanted to practice gratitude, but I had to find a way to do it my own way.

I did not feel as though putting a list of 3 things I was grateful for in a journal was the way I wanted to approach a gratitude practice.  That seemed too easy to me and it seemed like I could cheat at that.  A public blogpost, well in my mind that meant I had to put a little bit into that.  Doing a daily blogpost meant I would have to think and really experience the gratitude to write about it.  So that’s what I did, I started to write blogposts about things I was grateful for.

I did this for the first 67 days of the year.  I published every single day during that span of time.  I simply wrote a little bit about something I was grateful for.  These were just my thoughts, I didn’t heavily edit them, I just wrote and published and moved on with my day.  After that first 67 days I stopped publishing daily.  I have published a few more of these gratitude blogposts since then.  I ran out of steam a little bit with the daily publishing, but it is something I would very much like to return to for another long run sometime in the future.  The benefits of these posts have stuck with me fairly well though.  My mind was now wired for a more grateful and positive mindset.

I wrote about so many different things doing this experiment.  Few of the posts were about anything that I possessed of any “economic” value.  There were posts about possessing things like good cheese or blueberries, but no posts about having a super expensive phone or anything like that.  Possession really isn’t correlated to gratitude for me.  It’s not what matters to me.  I want nice and good things, but that is not where my focus is. 

My focus was much more on the simple beauty of this life.  I was grateful for a lot of things I had done, for smart actions I had taken.  I was grateful for the risks I had taken.  It is good to be grateful for making right choices.  My gratefulness extended beyond myself too as I got deeper into this way of thinking.

As I experienced and basked in gratefulness I became more aware and grateful for the gifts from God I had been given.  My thoughts are now constantly drawn towards family, friendship, nature, and community.  These all hold so many gifts and I cannot even hardly describe how grateful I am for them.  God has given me so much, and it gives me great peace to recognize this.

The practice of gratitude has given me many benefits.  It has rewired my brain in a much more positive place.  I feel as though I am constantly getting a shower of positivity.  When I am not having a good day, doing these writings forces me into a more positive frame.  I cannot do these writings without being in a positive place and literally experiencing the gratitude.  The following benefits I shall discus are simple, but have been great and wonderful for me.  These benefits have been what I needed in my life.

More Positivity

The diligent practice of gratitude is a positive thing.  All this writing about positive things has moved my mind into a positive place.  I don’t think you can be focused on both the negative and positive at the same time so my brain is forced by this project to focus on the positive.  This is a wonderful thing.  I have even started to smile spontaneously.  I also feel as though there is just much less weighing on me mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Recognition of The Good

Writing all these posts has trained my brain to recognize all the things I can be grateful for.  Since I was writing every day for a couple months on this one thing, I had to look everywhere for inspiration.  This was great because now my mind does this automatically all the time.  I literally am finding things all the time to be grateful for.  Once I was finding all these things, it was hard to dwell on negative things.

More Peace

Being in a more positive state and being focused on positive things is a peaceful way to live.  My mind has been far more at peace so far this year than it has been in many years.  I credit this peace to this gratitude practice I have adopted. 

I Weather The Storms Better

Life is always going to throw us adversity and trials.  I seem to be weathering these storms a lot easier with my new mindset and positivity.  As I write this, we are going through the COVID-19 epidemic.  This is a huge test, and I am weathering it rather well.  I am at peace as much as I can be with the state of the world.  I would like things to be very different than they are right now, but I don’t allow that to drive my state into a bad place.  I am handling all this pandemic fear so much better than I would have handled it a year ago.  For that I am grateful.

I Learned it’s NOT About Being Happy

Through all this I have learned that you can be positive without being all that happy.  I am not the happiest of people but I can still be in a good place emotionally.  There is much about life I am not happy with.  I still feel that right now I spend much of my time in a very positive place.  There are many ways to be positive without happiness.  Positive does not equal happy, and that is something I am learning.  I can be positive, and not feel happiness, and that is ok.

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These benefits all seem to have stuck with me fairly well even though I am not currently writing these posts daily anymore.  The changes have been made and I am doing enough blogposts still to keep those benefits going.  Some days I will write part of a post and toss it away, I just post what seems right to me. A post every week or two seems to be enough maintenance for me.  I do miss the daily posting, and feel as though I will return to it.

The constant daily writing allowed and even forced me to have a beautiful, wonderful and pure though every single day.  That is something too few of us experience.  By writing about these things I dove deep into them and very much experienced intense positive emotion around thee things I wrote about.  Often when I would finish I was physically tired, I was experiencing that much emotion around the things I felt.

What I wrote about was not everything I was grateful for.  I didn’t write about my friends or family.  I feel so deeply and intensely about them I didn’t know how to even articulate my gratitude about them, and our relationships.  This may change in the future, but so far I have not had the time and focus to really do them justice in my writing.  Many of the things I was grateful for seemed simple, but there are far more things I am grateful for.

Current Status of The Practice

As of May 5^th 2020 I am in a holding pattern in a lot of ways with this gratitude practice.  I am still doing some writing of blogposts around the topic.  If I don’t feel they are good for publishing I simply throw them away.  I am no longer putting pressure on myself to publish often.  I am still very focused on my gratitude though. 

I was very stressed finishing my book I was writing so I deciding to take a break off the daily publishing.  Then COVID-19 hit and my ability to find quiet time to write is dubious at best many days.  I think a break was good, because I don’t thin there is any reason to put pressure on myself right now.  The world is putting enough pressure on me as it is with the pandemic. 

Future Of The Practice

The future of my gratitude practice feels as though it is a bright one.  I feel that I will revisit these gratitude writings and experience the benefits and growth of this habits again.  I feel a pull towards doing these writings.  I feel full of excitement about what gratitude practices can do for me in the future.  I am also left with questions I wish to explore.

Did my benefits level off or could I have kept going and gotten to an even more positive place?

What other forms of practice can gratitude take other than writing?

What is the most practical and beneficial frequency of such practices?

In the future I would like to give 100 straight days of posting gratitude blogposts a try.  I would also like to try and do these posts for a whole year.  I hope I find a good time in life to explore these options more. 

Another form of gratitude I would like to explore is more outwardly expressing gratitude towards others.  I don’t think I show enough gratitude towards others.  I wonder what my state would be if I more outwardly expressed such gratitude.  I wonder if it such a practice would help lift others up to a positive place as well. 

How To Do Your Own Practice

If this all sounds like something you might like to try, I have ideas for you!

First you need to make this all fit your life and personality.  How you express gratitude might be different than me.  I use blogpost writing.  You might want to journal someplace that no one will ever read it.  You might express your gratitude through prayer.  You might just keep a little list you add to and read from time to time. 

I recommend letting this all come natural.  If you’re grateful for the fact you had a good tasting banana this morning and that’s what comes to mind, then go with it.  I feel like this is about letting yourself experience these emotions and states, so if you experience that towards a banana, and towards something more profound the next day like your grandparents, that is cool.  This is all for you and by letting it be for you, you are better for others.

Being in a more positive place will serve you will in so many ways.  It is a more peaceful and beautiful way to live.  Thank you for reading this far, I’m grateful you gifted me the time it took you to read this little article.

Today it was announced that Indiana Beach has been purchased by a new owner that plans to reopen the amusement park.  Several weeks prior it had been announced that the park was going to close after 94 years of operation.  Indiana Beach is getting another chance to go forward.  I received this information as wonderful news.  For ten seasons I worked at Indiana Beach.  The place holds a special place in my heart.  I am grateful that for a while longer that Indiana Beach has life and will remain open.

For ten seasons I worked at Indiana Beach doing every job imaginable in the place.  I was customer service.  I operated amusement rides.  If someone needed to light stunt performers on fire, well I was the guy for that too.  I experienced so much in my summers at the park.  It shaped so much of my mindset and my life.  Eternal gratefulness is the best description of my attitude towards the place and everything I experienced there.

Being 35 years old now I can look back on the past and see different things that have shaped me.  For many people they look at their high school, college, or neighborhood as the place that shaped them.  Those places all shaped me a bit, but Indiana Beach carried so much weight.  I learned about work there.  I learned about community there.  As time moves on, I understand how much I did love working at that place. 

It was an emotional time when I heard that the Indiana Beach was going to be closed.  The news of Indiana Beach closing was like the news of a lost friend.  With all the time I spent there, I left a little part of myself in that place.  I think anytime you spend years of your life in a place, you can end up leaving part of yourself there.  So now I can just be glad this special place is back in business. 

We get special places in our lives.  Indiana Beach is one of those places for me.  I am happy this place is going to continue.  It is such a special place in so many ways.  To list all the ways would take more time than I have tonight.  The place was real, it was make believe, it was a dream, it was hope for those of us that stayed there long enough to get to know the place.  That place is a living breathing thing, it is alive in mysterious ways.  I am grateful that this place that was such a huge part of my story is alive a little longer. 

There was a time when I believed in so many things.  I believed I could do anything.  I believed there was truth to be found in the mouths of political leaders.  I was a young man with the views of a young man.  This has changed, victories and defeats alike have changed me.  I see more of the truth of the world.  I recognize that in many cases there is no benefit to believing in most things.  This could be a catalyst for cynicism and coldness, but it hasn’t become that.  I burn brighter, I feel more warmth than ever before.  As so many of my beliefs fall away, I am grateful for the things I believe in more than ever.

To believe in so many things serves no purpose.  I don’t think it serves any purpose to believe in a politician.  Some believe in athletes or celebrities, I see no point in that.  Others believe in Star Wars, or Netflix, or YouTube, or any number of things.  I view this as misplaced belief, and it serves no purpose in my mind.

Belief is a thing I can place.  I can place my belief in any number of things.  I must choose these places wisely though.  When belief is placed, we create an expectation or a relationship with something.  This is a powerful force not to be taken lightly.  I find it powerful that I can still enjoy or participate in a thing without belief.  When I was younger I had belief and energy put into so many things.  I can’t bring myself to put my belief in many of those things.

The judicious application of belief seems to be on the road to wisdom.  There are so many things that I still believe in.  I believe in these things more than ever.  I have not become the cynic, I have become the fanatic.  I am so immensely grateful that I grow stronger in my beliefs and centered in them as time progresses.  I don’t believe in as many things as before, but I still believe.

I still believe in God.  I believe God has a plan for me.  I believe all the twists and turns and pains of my life have been put before me for a reason.  I cannot say what this plan is, but I believe God has done everything for a reason.  I stay centered in the belief that all of this stuff in my life matters.

Throughout my life family has remained important and central.  With all the love and all the memories, I don’t know how I couldn’t believe in them. 

True friendship is a force so powerful, it begs to be believed in and thus I believe.

I may believe in other things, these are the most powerful though.  I don’t need to believe in much else to make it through this world.  In the darkest of days I am grateful I can rest my faith and belief in this things.  I am grateful I have not lost the faith, and I still believe.

Joe Diffie passed away recently from the coronavirus.  His made a lot of country music for a long time.  I stumbled across his music sometime in my youth.  So much of his music had a fun twist to it.  That seems to fit me well.  I enjoyed the humor to his music.  I am grateful he made so much fun music for us to enjoy. 

Music can speak to so many sides of us.  I can enjoy the darkness of Metallica.  I can enjoy instrumental music.  For me Joe Diffie’s music spoke to my humorous side.  I think it’s wonderful to create some art that just makes people smile.  Making music that makes people smile, well that is a legacy worth having and something we can all aspire to with our own art.

Our society is facing the most trying time we have during my lifetime.  Coronavirus is wreaking havoc.  The United States government is becoming more corrupt and dysfunctional by the moment.  The speed of our technological innovation is sitting there as a potential problem as well.  These are just the perils that come to mind at the moment, we face many more.  Even against these challenges we see the glimmers of hope.  There are good people doing good things to fight against these evil forces.  There better ways of living out there, and we might find them.  It is wonderous how adaptable and imaginative that we can be.  I am grateful for the adaptiveness and imagination of the forces of good.

As societies and individuals, we can overcome so many things.  We are faced with great adversities right now, but we can come out on the other side.  The options of peace, joy, and abundance are available to us.  We must however choose these things.  Some of these choices are rather easy, some are harder, but we can make them.  Within us is this ability and imagination to choose many beautiful things. 

My Twitter and Instagram feeds are full of these choices.  People are helping their neighbors and checking in on each other.  People are getting out and being fit and healthy by taking walks, jogging and bicycling.  There are a lot of people out there with the ability to make protective equipment for medical professionals, and they are doing it.  These are all beautiful things, and we are doing them amid uncertainty, chaos, and fear.

Chaos, uncertainty, and fear rarely last forever.  Life will likely get back to something resembling “normal” at some point.  The choices we make then matter a lot. We can choose to keep doing the beautiful things we have started during this virus scare.  We can use our adaptiveness to make things better so maybe this won’t happen again.  We have a lot of choices ahead of us.  I am grateful we at least have a choice and ability to adapt and overcome.

The coronavirus is likely to pass in some time, most pandemics do.  We still have many other challenges that will remain.  If we can adapt and quarantine and overcome this virus, we have within us the strength to do many things.  We can reshape economies to show dignity and respect for all people.  Governments can be held accountable and corruption snuffed out.  As a people what happens to us is partly what we allow to happen to us.  We can choose a beautiful life for ourselves, and a beautiful society for our neighbors.  Our resourcefulness and imaginations hold all the answers.  We have found the answers before and we can find them again.  For these things I am grateful and because of them I have hope.

I break daily from the toils of my labor for lunch and refreshment.  This refreshment is of the mind, body, and spirit.  My lunch routine has grown beyond just eating, its about fueling everything.  Every day I seek to get strong in all things.  I am grateful I have forged this pursuit into a daily lunchtime habit.

My lunch routine is simple.  I drive to the park and park off by myself.  I then proceed to spend some time reading the Bible and in prayer.  I then eat some food from a cooler in my van.  Then I go for a walk, either listening to education podcasts, or in silence.  That is my routine, and it seems as though it makes me stronger in all ways.  I have spent time thinking about each part and dialing it in. 

I go to the park and park way off by myself to do these things.  I don’t want distractions and I want quiet to do these things.  This is my space for doing these things, I feel as though its good to have a space for all things.  This is my space for lunch.

Reading the Bible and praying is all about taking my faith more seriously.  I have not taken my faith as seriously as I should in the past.  So I built this into my lunch habits so that I was at least doing something every day.  A little time talking to God is good, I don’t always pray that long, but this habit keeps me doing it daily.  The same goes for reading the Bible at lunch.  I read whatever I feel like, I just want to make sure I’m touching the Bible daily.  This little bit helps me stay more centered on God, it is just the start of what I should be doing, but it’s a start.

Eating lunch, well eating lunch is pretty simple.  I eat simple foods that fuel me, and that’s it.  My lunch’s tend to be nutritional, and stay focused that way.  I eat a lot of garbage but not at lunch.  Lunch is to fuel performance.

After eating I go for a walk that lasts anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes.  I just walk as far as I feel like.  This gives me some base of exercise.  I seem to think better after getting the blood flowing a bit.  Depending on the day I will either listen to a podcast or walk in silence.

Podcasts I listen to while walking are for expanding my knowledge.  I listen to podcasts about an array of subjects, some business podcasts, some writing podcasts, and some lifting ones.  These seem to be about exposing myself to more ideas and concepts.  I don’t know that I learn a lot of deep things from these podcasts, but exposure is the first step in deeper learning.  Somedays I just walk in silence though.

I think quiet is important, and super important if we are trying to think at our peak capabilities.  Long quiet walks are my best thinking times and where my so many of my ideas come from.  The more I walk the more ideas I have.  I could warrant spending most of the day walking to be honest. 

This might be rambling, but its what I do 6 days a week, Sundays look a bit different.  I have experimented with it and shifted different things in and out of this routine.  It does a good job of helping me address things that are important to me but maybe not urgent.  I am grateful this whole routine is autopilot and taking care of some of these important and non-urgent things.  It helps me keep stepping forward in a lot of ways, it is an easy pace, but I know I keep moving forward with these things daily.