We live in a fast-paced and crazy world. And let's face it… the pressures of our crazy and busy lifestyles can be stressful and if we’re not careful, can begin to hold us back and taint our outlook on our everyday lives.

Because it is so easy to allow negativity seep into our lives, one of the first things we begin to neglect is the beauty and blessings in every day. And I have to be honest, I used to be one of those super annoying people that would wake up in the morning, see the sun shining and think “Wow, this is gonna be a great day!”. To me, the sun was always shining and even when things would go wrong I STILL found a way to make it better. But unfortunately, life happens and reality does set in.

About two years ago, when I was battling with the deepest depression of my life. I saw every morning as a curse and every night as I would let my head hit the pillow, I would close my eyes and pray to for the misery to end. While it was horrible and suffocating, I look back on it now and realize that although I was battling a mental illness, it did not just hit me, head on, out of nowhere. It was a gradual decline that all began with a big life change and my life feeling completely out of balance.

Fast-forward to today and I have learned the pure importance of pausing to take a moment to praise, of taking a step back to breathe and make an effort to see the beauty and blessings each day holds. No matter how big or small, this new way of thinking has completely changed my whole outlook on life.

Full disclosure, I miss being that happy-go-lucky person. I miss seeing the wind dance between the clouds and hear the fall leaves sing as they rustled in the trees. Simply put, as the famous singer Kelly Rowland said, I have learned that “We all have different things that we go through in our everyday life, and it’s really important to know just at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what you face, you know, that you’re going to win at the end of the day. You got to believe in yourself. You got to believe in God, know that He’s going to get you through it,”.

No one is exempt from a bad day or from the curve balls that life will throw. Some days will always be better than others and there will be things that we cannot change, no matter how hard we try.

But the change begins when we begin to shift our outlook, choose to adjust our attitude and choose to enjoy the journey. After all, we won’t remember every single bad moment of our lives.

Au Contraire, it is the journey and those simple moments that we decided to look up and see the sun or the birds in the air, those moments of serenity, laughter, and thankfulness that we will remember for the rest of our lives.