So, people kept yapping on about “gratitude.” Sounded like a load of nonsense to me, you know? Like something folks say when they want to pretend everything’s peachy keen even when it’s clearly not. I was pretty sure it was just another one of those feel-good fads that would blow over.
Then things got a bit… much. Life just felt heavy. Work was piling up, I wasn’t sleeping great, and I was generally walking around like a bear with a sore head. My usual go-to – which, if I’m honest, was mostly complaining – wasn’t really cutting it anymore. It just seemed to dig the hole deeper, if anything. So, almost on a whim, I figured, “Alright, what have I got to lose? Let’s give this gratitude malarkey a try.” I wasn’t expecting miracles, mind you.
My Super Complicated Method for Finding These “Glimmers”
I didn’t buy any special notebooks or download any fancy apps. Nah, that’s not really my style. I decided to keep it as basic as possible. The whole idea was just to try and spot tiny, almost invisible good things during the day. “Glimmers,” I started calling them in my head. Not huge, life-altering events, just… small specks of okay-ness.
Here’s what I actually started doing:
- The pre-coffee challenge: Before I even let myself have my first cup of coffee, while it was brewing, I’d make myself think of one thing. Just one tiny thing that wasn’t actively terrible. Sometimes, honestly, it was just “hey, the coffee machine turned on.” The bar was set incredibly low.
- My commute scan: When I was driving or on the bus, instead of just stewing about delays, I’d try to look around for something, anything, that wasn’t annoying. Maybe a funny sign, or seeing someone else also looking miserable, which weirdly helped. Or just the fact my old car actually started. You get the picture.
- The end-of-day quick check: Before I properly conked out for the night, I’d spend maybe a minute or two mentally rewinding the day. Did anything, even something super small, go alright? Maybe a meeting ended on time. Maybe I found something I thought I’d lost. Little, everyday stuff.
And let me tell you, it felt incredibly awkward at first. Really, really forced. Like I was trying to pull a fast one on my own brain. My mind just wanted to keep pointing out all the big, glaring problems. “Yeah, that’s nice,” it would sneer, “but what about THIS mess, or THAT issue?!” And to be fair, it still has a point sometimes.
So, What Actually Changed? Am I Now a Beacon of Positivity?
Heck no. Let’s be real, I’m still pretty much the same person, prone to a good grumble. But here’s the funny thing. After doing this for a few weeks, just consistently trying to catch these tiny glimmers, something did start to feel a bit different. It wasn’t like a sudden epiphany with choirs and bright lights.
It was much more subtle. It was like the constant, nagging background static in my head got turned down just a notch. The big problems didn’t magically disappear, of course. This gratitude thing isn’t a magic wand. But it was as if I’d also started to notice these other little pinpricks of light. They didn’t erase the bad, but they were there, existing at the same time. And just acknowledging they were there, even if they were tiny, made the heavy stuff feel a tiny bit less… overwhelming.
It’s like, before, my focus was always on the muck. Now, I still see the muck, because, well, life can be mucky. But I also occasionally spot a small, unexpected flower pushing through it. It’s not a perfect garden, not by a long shot, but it’s something. And sometimes, that “something” is just enough to help you keep going without feeling completely swamped. So yeah, these “glimmers of gratitude.” Still sounds a bit cheesy when I say it out loud, but maybe, just maybe, there’s a little something to it. Or perhaps I just got better at making coffee. Who knows.
