Someone once told me that I am really good at giving advice, but when it comes to taking my own medicine, I suck. I give advice to people all the time – about living in the moment, about being grateful for what you have, I am all about following dreams and listening to that little voice we all have inside of us.
But over the last couple of weeks months, I just lost it. Everything began to annoy me. I was stressed and pissed off and just tired. I wanted to move back to Australia where I had friends and family and a cafe table with my name on it. I wanted life to be simple again.
Living abroad can be a struggle. It can be a fight. It can make you tired. Or it can be the best thing for you, it can open you up to possibility, people, chances. It can teach you lessons, help you grow and make you more patient. Yesterday I decided to stop focusing on what I don’t have and begin focusing on what I do have.
I wrote an article about gratitude about a week ago, and now I have to start taking some of my own medicine. I have to start saying thank you – out loud. So here are some things I am grateful for. There are many, but here are just a few.
- I have access to fresh fruit and vegetables every day.
- I make money doing what I love.
- I have a home, a roof over my head, which is filled with warmth, colour and happy memories.
- I have time to do what I love.
- I have beautiful people in my life who make me smile and want to be a better person.
- I am healthy and have energy to be as active as I like.
- There is nothing stopping me from doing what I want with my life.
- I have a supportive network of family and friends around the world who make me feel loved and cared for.
- I have about 10 different types of teas in my cupboard.
- I have access to education and love to learn.
- I have time to be creative.
- I sleep in a comfy bed, not a mattress on the floor (anymore).
- I am in touch with that little voice inside me.
- I can watch television in Spanish and not feel utterly and completely lost.
- I have received breakfast in bed more in this last month than I have in 28 years of life.
What are you grateful for? If you’re having a hard time and need a nudge in the right direction, have a go at writing down what you’re grateful for. Here are five steps on how you can live life with more gratitude, courtesy of an article I wrote recently for SheKnows.
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Grateful Living
You’ve slept through your alarm, the kids are late for school and you’d much rather be at home reading a book than going to that work meeting. But if we take a deep breath and a step back, we really do have a lot to be grateful for, don’t we? Here are five ways to live life with more gratitude and use this gratitude to fuel our everyday lives.
Hola Sarepa! Reading your article just now made me smile. I have also been living abroad for almost a year now and have been feeling a bit frustrated and annoyed recently as well. I think it is part of the experience. We probably are in one of the phases of cultural adjustment (after the honeymoon phase), settling in or whatever it may be called from a psychological point of view.
Last week, I decided to make a list every night of 5 nice things that happened during the day. These may be “little things” like eating ice cream or making a stranger smile. And you know what? It helps. Being grateful and looking at all the bright things out there pays off. I am sure you felt much better after writing that list up there, didn’t you. It sounds great!
I hope you keep enjoying life in Colombia Tierra Querida and that you keep writing about your experiences. I really enjoy following your blog. Greetings from Turkey!
Hola Ana, what a lovely comment! I am also grateful for having wonderful people like yourself to connect with. You are absolutely right too, I have had the honeymoon stage and now my relationship with Colombia is getting serious. But that’s what makes it all great, isn’t it? Things become challenging and we learn so much from the experience. And truly, I have so much to be grateful for, I just sometimes forget to take notice of all the amazing things going on. I look forward to reading all about your experience in Turkey too. Take care and saludos desde Colombia!