Over the summer, a friend of mine shared a TED talk with me. The title of it was “365 Grateful Project.” The woman in this TED talk was struggling with depression and just an overall complacency with life. She decided that she was going to try something in hopes that it might help her.
For one year, she took a photo each day of something she was grateful for. By the end of that year, she had become a new person. Her depression had lifted and she began experiencing a new sense of joy that she had never known before.
After watching this video, I chose to try it out. A whole year seemed intimidating to me so I decided to try it out for just one week. For that week, I kept my eyes open, trying to gain awareness of the things around me that I was truly grateful for.
At first, it was easy. I took notice of the obvious things in my life that I already knew were special to me. I’m grateful for the things I have, the people I know and the experiences I’ve been through.
The difference I began to notice however was that I became more aware of the little things in life that I had previously not taken notice of.
Three times a week, I had taken the exact same route to my early morning class. I usually dreaded this walk because it was so early and because it was a class that I was not particularly excited about. That first Monday though, I found myself walking at 7 AM, as I usually do, but instead of dreading the morning ahead of me, I noticed the way the sunrise looked over the Bell Tower on campus.
This was something I had never noticed before and had never been able to appreciate. The next two mornings that I made this walk, I saw the same thing. Part of me was in shock that this was something I had never noticed before, but at the same time, I felt a true sense of gratefulness that I was not expecting.
The rest of that week, I continued to have very similar experiences. It seemed that every day, I noticed something new. It was things that had been there all along. The things around me didn’t change, but my outlook did. I stopped taking notice of all the things I had to complain about and began to recognize the things that showed me that the complaining wasn’t necessary. I started to notice the small things.
When I learned to open my eyes to everything around me, and not just the things I felt like I should be grateful for, I became so much more aware of all the things I truly am blessed by.
I was able to appreciate the cup of coffee that my friend surprised me with.
I noticed a butterfly on the ground and was able to appreciate that it stayed still long enough for me to take a picture.
Here’s the link to the TED talk that started this journey for me:
