How my life changed after 7 days of gratitude.

One may think 7 days of a habit does nothing because we’ve been taught that 21 days form a habit. Little did we know that it was based on an assumption and an erroneous calculation. Sorry to burst your bubble, but 21 days, do not form a habit. Does that mean it takes longer? Why think of it on the flip side ? Maybe less than 7 days can make a habit...

What is the meaning of feeling gratitude? If you find a 100 rupee note in your old jeans pocket, how do you react to it?

Do you say, “I am silly, I forgot this, I missed this 100 rupee note”? Or do you say, “Oh what a surprise, yay! I’m gonna treat my best friend with ice cream today.”

This defines your attitude to feeling gratitude.

I took a 100 day gratitude challenge and here’s what happened in the first 7 days.

Day 1: In order to feel grateful, I stepped out of my comfort zone. I forced myself to go to a classical music concert and chose to be happy. If you knew me, you might think “What? A millennial who doesn’t understand the C of classical music is going to a classical music concert?” But, I was surprised by a performance which was classical rap! It made me smile. I was grateful I came to the concert.

Day 2: I set an alarm with my sister to spend 20 minutes listening to her rant. And we ended up laughing about how we needed to set an alarm to spend 20 minutes together. I was grateful that I set that alarm.

Day 3: This just happened to be Friyay, and who doesn't love that? So, I ended up reading about a writer called Thich Naht Hanh, who defined the 4 ways to be happy.

I was convinced that the universe had decided to tell me, that I was going on the right track. I was grateful I googled him.

Day 4: Regular grocery shopping on Saturday morning and I realized that I had gotten the freshest stock from the vendors. Wow. I was grateful that I woke up early.

Day 5: Sunday, well, I was grateful that it was Sunday and watched my favourite TV show on Netflix. I was grateful that I had the opportunity to do that.

Day 6: Monday, I was dreading this, but my team chose to do a gratitude meditation which lasted 3 minutes, but the happy high lasted the whole day. I was grateful that I had a team that cared for my mental health as much as I did.

Day 7: I felt really refreshed and started looking for one happy thing I could decide on.

But I couldn't decide on even one, because there were so many things for feeling gratitude towards.

When you feel grateful, your ego moves out of the way, in experiencing this, one chooses to believe that everything that comes forth today, I will treat it as that 100 rupee note. But as you see, this means, step 1 is demolishing the old beliefs and doing away with the negativity.

Step 2, is finding the 100 rupee note by accident every single day. (Lol, not literally, but you get what I mean) Your journal can say something as simple as “Friendly neighborhood dog didn't bark at me today.”

Step 3: Keep your eyes open for these blessings. Running water, air conditioning, plants, warm food, every single thing should be treated with the same kind of excitement as the 100 rupee note.

Step 4: Do it consistently. Day after day. Trust me, there are things you can be grateful for even on your worst days.

Gratitude doesn't automatically mean that your days will be all rainbows and sunshine with puppies licking your face while you roll on a million dollars. It means, you will see the rainbow on the darkest days and you don't need someone else to show you that. The world may say you need something to be happy, but why can't we just be happy that we are alive, and well, and that we have the internet today, so that you get to read this contagious post about gratitude so that you can spread positivity further?

Can this post be your “One happy thing for today?”

And so it begins…