Why a Gratitude Practice is Important

Sometimes when the world seems impossibly heavy, the best place to go is into gratitude. Life is hard. It doesn’t come with a manual or rulebook and that’s what I’ve spent the majority of my recent years trying to provide. That’s the purpose of my work.

Gratitude has a way of switching us from a place of despair to a place of gratefulness. No matter the circumstance, there’s always an opportunity. Capital T traumas aren’t the opportunity, but the person one becomes when they survive them often use them to find their superpower.

It is in these moments of complete despair that God is readily available. I heard Carolyn Myss once say that your prayers are strongest when in a place of grief and I’ve experienced that time and time again. The pieces of life that aren’t serving become really apparent when your tolerance is in the negative. I’ve historically been in a place of letting go with my experiences of grief, which allowed for continued transitions in those places in my life that were no longer serving me.

Even in these moments of despair and anguish, I’ve managed to see the gift of that closeness to God. It has been the catalyst to continue on the path of release. When my grandmother passed away, I took the overdue step of breaking up with my boyfriend as well. When my friend died, I left the breathwork community that I’d outgrown.

In all of it, I prayed so hard I felt Spirit walking beside me holding my hand. In every instance, I sought gratitude. There is a dichotomy around gut-wrenching loss and the ability to know truth with every fiber of your being.

Practicing gratitude is simply a practice in coming back to center.

These big feelings, that’s what we’re here as humans to experience. There are gifts in everything, and it helps to be in the practice of looking for them.

When the loss is great, the stakes are high, and life still offers us miracles to touch the stars.