Catching up with Karyn
Gratitexts: 30 Seconds to Greater Gratitude and Happiness
My alarm clock didn’t go off. No hot water in the shower. I’d run out of coffee (gasp!). And to top it all off… my “fat pants” were feeling a bit snug—aaaaaauuuuggghhhhhh! This was shaping up to be a miserable morning, and my 12-hour shift hadn’t even begun!
I heard my phone chime and my heart skipped a beat. Had I gotten my times mixed up—was I late for work? I snatched my phone off the table and saw the text:
“I just wanted you remind you how amazing you are and how grateful I am that you’re in my life.”
My eyes got teary and my heart swelled. My sister, also a busy healthcare professional and three time zones away, had taken 30 seconds out of her busy schedule to share her gratitude. It changed the course of my entire day and reshaped my life.
Studies have shown that one way of increasing your happiness setpoint is to practice being grateful. Studies vary slightly in their findings, but in a nutshell, writing down...
Dear lord, grant me world peace, thin thighs, and hips without hail damageā€¦
The other day at a shopping mall, I unexpectedly caught site of my backside in a reflection. When I came to, I couldn’t bring myself to tell the nice paramedic what had really caused my fainting spell.
Once home, I gazed in the mirror and uttered my daily prayer: “Dear lord: Grant me world peace, thin thighs, and hips without hail damage (not in any particular order).”
World peace seemed much more likely than thin thighs.
However, seeing forty in my rearview mirror has had its advantages. My thirst for knowledge has made me smarter than I was as a twenty-something (if nothing else, I recognize how much I don’t know). Funny how at that age I thought I knew it all—that I was wise beyond my years. I knew about life. I knew about love. My mother had assured me I could be anything I wanted to be when I grew up, and I believed her. (Note: My interpretation was that I could do everything I wanted to do—big difference).
With years has come...
