I think a lot. When I am running on a treadmill, I think about every little part of my body that allows me to do so. I think about the way that my legs function, that I can breathe without pain, and even the fact that I can stand up straight. When I walk to my classes, I thank God that my knees work, that I can walk without pain, that I don't have constant headaches, and that I'm not in the hospital. There's a good chance that for any disease or discomfort that you can think of, any minor irritation or major disorder, I have taken a second and thanked God that I don't have it.

I'm the kind of person who sees my fair share of illness, whether it's in real life or in the medical dramas that suck up all of my time. I have heard so often the phrase, "I took it all for granted," or, "I never realized how important this was to me until I couldn't do it any more." I never want to be one of those people. I want to live without regrets and without taking anything for granted. Nothing is guaranteed. One minute I might be feeling fine and dandy and the next I might be bed-ridden. Life can change in the blink of an eye and that's something that I continuously think about. If one day I do suddenly become debilitated, I want to be able to say that I never took my working knees, my painless breaths, or my fine motor skills for granted.

This doesn't just translate to my health. I am thankful for my socks, my bed, my running water, and my electricity. When you live with something all of your life, it's hard to imagine living without it, but imagine for a split second what your life would look like if you didn't have access to a computer, clean clothes, or that frozen edamame in the fridge? What if you didn't have access to running water? The harsh reality is that many people in this world do not have those thing. While that shouldn't make you feel guilty for having what you have, you should always be conscious of everything that allows you to thrive day-by-day, no matter how small or irrelevant it may seem.

The road to thankfulness isn't quite black and white. There's not really a way to wake up and automatically start overthinking life the way I tend to. But I think that the biggest way to start this journey is to pay attention. The more wrapped up you become in your own life, the less you learn from others and the less you are able to see life's bigger pictures. Just because you're feeling fine and dandy about life doesn't mean that you should become complacent in that happiness; always keep in mind the reasons you're happy and the ways in which you are blessed.

Even if you're not a secular person, thank your knees for working. Thank your throat from not closing up on you, thank your lungs for filling, and your heart for beating. Thank your paycheck, your warm jacket, or your salad. Then pay it forward. One of the easiest things in these comfortable lives that many of us lead is becoming complacent, or only interacting with the little world inside of your bubble of daily existence. Put yourself in the shoes of someone without the blessings that you've been given. Get out of your daily rut and really confront the reality that, no matter how dire your straits seem right now, there is always something for which to be thankful.