A STORY OF GRATITUDE: HOW GRATITUDE CAN HELP YOU LIVE A HAPPIER LIFE

It is with so much pleasure to introduce to you, Angie, owner and designer behind Under This Moon Designs! In today's article, Angie shares her personal story on the power of gratitude and how it transformed her life and business.

A little about Under This Moon Designs

Under This Moon is rooted in self-love, self-worth and self-care. Angie's intention is to pass along the gift of gratitude, affirmations and self-care to those who wish to transform just the same — and use some cute stationery while their doing it! 

We hope her story inspires you just as much as it inspired us 💛 

*To shop for all of your self care and self love stationary, please head to underthismoon.ca* 

What Are You Grateful For?

Let me take you back to a version of me that existed only a few years ago. Back in 2020, and during the height of the pandemic, I was 6 months postpartum, feeling depressed, anxious and to put it bluntly— suffering inside. While the world was at a stand still, scared of our new normal and scared of the world around us, there were many moments during this time where I questioned how anyone could be walking around with a positive thought in their mind. Like, hello? The world is ending? How are we all supposed to be doing this?

I began walking around with a chip on my shoulder. As if I had been robbed of my life and what should have been a beautiful time for my baby and I. I had lost my support system and every hope and dream I had for a peaceful entry into my experience as a new mom of two. I began to act as if happiness was owed to me. And when the world reopened and life began to balance out, I was lost.

Then there came a point where I got out right sick of myself. Sick of the stories I was telling myself to keep me comfortable, the way I was inauthentically serving my family and others, and after spending way too many days indoors, how many blue skies I had taken for granted. It was time to make a change.

There are two points you come to in your life: either life forces you to make a change through tragedy or you become the tragedy yourself. And on a cold night in December, after almost a year of hiding, I realized I had endured both. The tragedy I was experiencing in the world around me and the tragedy I had become. I say that now with ease because perspective always gives you the gift of time and what I didn’t know then, that I know now, is that starting a habit of practicing gratitude daily would change my life.

One month, after realizing I was taking everything in my life for granted, I challenged myself to start the next 30 days by listing off three things I was grateful for. My husband, my kids and my health; those were commonly my top three. Throughout that month, and this daily practice, I was able to sit with my thoughts and the things that truly mattered to me and was quickly able to realize that everything I ever needed was already in my possession. And everything I was searching for, was already a part of me.

Photo by: @contentbycarter

Gratitude has been studied in the highest of classrooms as the quickest way to bring happiness into our lives. Gratitude can help us process negative feelings faster, help us carry more compassion for others and allow us to spread kindness with ease. Expressing thankfulness for the people in our lives can strengthen relationships and cultivate more love and joy around us.

"I call gratitude the bridge to abundance."

It has the power to take any moment from an “I have to” to an “I get to.” And through this practice we can truly see how it is the small, everyday things and moments that make the biggest impact on our lives. Gratitude helps our blessings become more easily visible.

So whether you meet gratitude on the coldest of nights or the warmest of days — just meet it. Pick up a pen and write down 3 things you’re grateful for and give yourself the gift of seeing how much is already in your possession.

Now I have to ask, What are You Grateful For?

Photo by: @rockwoodphotograph

If you want to start a daily practice of gratitude, check us out at underthismoon.ca where we have
Gratitude Check-In notepads to help you in this daily practice and all of your active self care needs.