Life can seem rather mediocre right? There are so many days where we wake up a just feel fed up and blah. Worst still, there’s days where we wake up and wonder what the point of it all is. Stressful work, complicated relationships and financial difficulties can make life seem pretty bleak. This is why it’s important to our mental health to find reasons to feel grateful.
It was back in May 2018 that I fell into a period of existential depression and reached peak questioning about life itself. I was not suicidal but I did start to think that maybe life was pointless.
Why did I keep doing the same things every day? Work was stressing me out to the point of wanting to quit and I had bills to pay that just seemed to keep on mounting up. I felt suffocated.
I kept spiralling downwards until those around me helped to sort out the things in my life that were bothering me. I felt caught up in the things we have to do in life – go to work, pay bills and struggle along. It seemed like there was no room for anything else.
I was taking everything else in my life for granted. By nature, I’m a worrier. I overthink everything to the point of torturing myself.
I knew that I’d let everything build up to that point of breaking. It’s been a few years now of writing and trying to change my perspective so I took my own advice and decided to start acting more grateful for not only what I felt I could control but also for the super important things in my life that were right in front of me.
The answer to my suffering was conciously being more grateful. Grateful for my existence, my family and my health and much, much more. If you’re like most people, you overlook the things that make your existence more bareable each day. We’re constantly on the pursuit for more. More money, more acceptance and more ‘things’.
It’s this pursuit that blinds us.
So this year, I decided to write a book that was not just for others but also for myself. I wrote it to use it as a reminder that even though some days of the week seem pointless and boring, life is still pretty amazing on the whole, if we stop and look. (link coming soon)
I continue to add to this gratitude book but I wanted to lay out some of the ideas that I have come to use in this book in this post because it opened my mind to some of the things that we pay no attention to each day but are really important to the stability of our basic existence.
So here’s some reasons to be grateful amongst what you might see as a mediocre existence on the face of things;
Family. Family are those who will always look out for your best interest. There’s people you can trust up to a degree but it’s your family that truly look out for you. It was my family that helped me through my tough time last year and for that I’m grateful. Without feeling as if I was supported I don’t know what I would have done.
Health. As a thirty year old man, I’m starting to look at my health in a different way. I’m starting to appreciate the fact that my arms and legs work properly and allow me to do everyday things. Of course, some people aren’t so lucky. Your body is your vehicle in life so it’s important to look after it as best you can. After having the flu for two years in a row, I’m even more grateful for my health. It’s not until we fall ill that we truly appreciate our health.
Another reason to feel grateful is the fact that we can heal. Your body is an amazing thing that bounces back from sickness and injury.
A place to stay. How often do you see people on the street living rough? Quite a lot of you live in a city. Having a place to stay is probably one of the biggest things I have taken for granted. It’s important for you physical health but also your mental health. If you had nowhere to live it would surely be phsycologically crushing.
Food. Whilst I try to look after my health I do like the occasional fast food. However, food in any form and clean water are the scaffolding to life itself. In the developed world we don’t have to catch our own meat or grow our own vegetables, we just go to a store and put them in a bag. To me, it’s pretty amazing.
Music. Music and art exist to change the way you feel. They can bring you down or lift you up but music feeds the soul in a way that nothing else can. It gives life a rythmn and is always there to comfort us. Music also helps us to connect with others and share emotions. A quiet existence would be incredibly boring.
The mind. The human mind is a precious thing and without it, nothing else can exist. The human mind is incredibly powerful, you can use it to literally change your world just by thinking. It’s unparalleled to anything else on this planet and its intelligence separates us from all other animals.
A new day. Every day is a new chance to change your mediocre existence. Whilst you may still have to go to the same old boring job and do the same old boring things you can at the same time develop new habits and set new goals for yourself. Yesterday is done but tomorrow is a chance to make change.
Love. Probably one of the main reasons we go on living. Love between people is something we cannot physically see and yet it ties us so closely together. It’s a powerful drug concocted in our minds that binds us to those we care about.
Friends. Friends are the people that we spend a lot of our time with, like our family. However, with our friends we can share the same experiences, talk about the same things that bother us and make us happy. Real friends act almost like family as we grow strong bonds with them and can confide in them.
Challenges. Challenges are important because they are the things that make us better people. Without challenges we’d have no opportunity to learn and grow as people. I used to shy away from challenges in life but I now try and embrace them because the feeling of overcoming them is empowering.
Work. I used to hate work, sometimes I still do if I’m honest. A lot of times we dread going to work, especially when we hate the work we do. However, work allows us to earn the money we need to live. It also gives us structure in life in what would otherwise seem like empty voids of time. Work is a means to an end and some people struggle to get work so it’s another reason to feel grateful in my book.
Days off. Whilst I believe we should be grateful for work, there’s also nothing quite like the feeling of having your days off to relax. The two seem to balance each other as we appreciate and value our free time more when have to go to work the rest of the week.
Hobbies. Without hobbies like writing and drawing, I think I might just go mad. There isn’t much else that I enjoy as an individual then indulging in my hobbies. When I get my free time I love to fire up my laptop and get lost in writing. Time seems to disappear and I feel like I’m doing what I should be in that moment.
Bad days. Without bad days there would be no good days. Sounds obvious but if we only felt pleasure then we wouldn’t feel grateful for it. Whilst I may not enjoy a rainy, boring Monday, it makes a sunny Saturday all the better.
Art. Not just the painting-type but music, books, films and classic art. Since the beginning of time humans have been creating art not only to try and make sense of the world but also in an attempt to share emotion. Art is inspiring, it makes us want to get up and do something creative ourselves. Without it, life would be incredibly mediocre.
Medicine. How far have we come with medicine? I still find it unbelievable that someone can be trained to perform heart surgery. In the developed world we are lucky enough that we know if we get ill we can be cared for by the most intelligent and capable people alive.
The internet. Whilst the internet is a place for people to be incredibly mean to each other, it’s also amazing in the fact it connects us all together. If I want to send someone a message in Australia, I just need to press a button! With the internet you can share your message and also crate yourself a career, almost for free! That’s a pretty good reason to be grateful!
Electricity. It’s almost impossible to think how life would be without electricity. Without it there would be no internet, heating or lights in your home! It’s not always the cheapest of things but it makes life much more comfortable in a world where you’d otherwise have to rely on candles!
Hygiene. In the developed world there is so much we don’t have to worry about. Hygiene is one of the,. You’ve probably seem those documentaries about the folks in African countries who live amongst their sewage in the streets. There’s reason to feel grateful for having a place to wash and use a clean toilet no matter how trivial these may seem.
TV shows. Okay, maybe not the mind-numbing reality TV shows but interesting shows that teach you things and widen your mind. TV’s probably one of the greatest inventions, ever. I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve probably learnt more from documentaries then I have in a classroom. What’s more, there’s not much better then coming home after a tough day and watching your favourite show. It doesn’t even have to cost you extra either; resources like this how to watch TV for free guide have tips and tricks to help you get as much entertainment as possible without spending any money.
Reasons To Feel Grateful
Life can so easily get us down and we can get wrapped up in the small stuff. It’s the daily grind that usually makes us forget what we’re truly grateful for. Acting consciously grateful is important for your mental health because it is a way to change your perspective.
There’s reasons to feel grateful all around us. If you’re feeling depressed by what seems like a mediocre existence, I can totally understand and relate. What’s more, I’m beginning to think that it’s totally normal to get this way from time to time, especially when you overthink things to a high degree.
Some of us find it easier than others to see the injustices in the world or the repetitive nature of life and that’s okay. We just have to try harder to see the good too.
Let me know what you’re grateful for in the comments!