So, I started doing this thing a while back. Wasn’t anything fancy. Life felt kinda gray, you know? Like running on a treadmill, same view every day. I wasn’t unhappy, exactly, but definitely not… vibrant. Just going through the motions.
I read somewhere about just noticing stuff. Sounds dumb, right? But I figured, what the heck. So, I started trying. Really simple. Like, forcing myself to actually pay attention for a few minutes each day.
What I Actually Did
It wasn’t some big meditation retreat or anything. More like this:
- Morning coffee: Instead of gulping it down while scrolling news, I’d just sit for two minutes. Actually taste it. Notice the warmth of the mug. Sounds basic, I know.
- Walking outside: I tried to spot one tiny thing I hadn’t noticed before. A weirdly shaped leaf. The way the light hit a building. A funny crack in the pavement.
- End of the day: Before crashing, I’d try to recall just one small, okay-ish thing that happened. Didn’t have to be amazing. Maybe I found a parking spot easily. Or my code compiled on the first try (okay, that is amazing, but you get the idea). Sometimes it was just that dinner tasted good.
Honestly, the first few days felt forced. A bit silly. Like, “Okay, I am now noticing this cup. Great.” But I kept at it, mainly ’cause I didn’t have a better idea.
Why It Started Clicking
Then something weird happened. After maybe a week or two, it stopped feeling like a chore. I’d find myself just… noticing things without trying so hard. The coffee thing actually made my morning feel a tiny bit calmer. Spotting the weird leaf made me chuckle.
I think it reminded me of a time years ago when things were properly rough. Money worries, job stress, the whole package. Back then, I couldn’t see anything good. My whole world felt like it was shrinking, painted in fifty shades of worry. All I could focus on was the big, scary problems. Couldn’t spare a thought for whether the sun was shining or not.
So doing this simple noticing thing now… it’s like flexing a muscle I forgot I had. It didn’t magically fix any big problems. Life still throws curveballs. But it’s like it tuned my brain slightly differently. Instead of only seeing the big stressors, I started seeing the small, okay bits too. They were always there, I guess. I just wasn’t looking.
And that’s where the gratitude part kinda snuck in. Not the big, fireworks kind of gratitude. More like a quiet nod. A little “huh, that’s nice” feeling. For the coffee. For the parking spot. For the fact that, compared to that rough patch years ago, things are actually pretty decent overall.
It’s not about pretending everything is perfect. Far from it. It’s just… acknowledging the small pockets of ‘okay’ that exist even on mediocre days. It grounds me, I suppose. Makes the inevitable crappy stuff feel a little less all-consuming.
So yeah. Still doing it. Still feels a bit basic sometimes. But it works for me. Makes the day-to-day feel less like a gray treadmill. And for that, yeah, I’m pretty grateful.
