Gratitude

I’m an anxious person by nature. I tend to worry about the million things that could go wrong. I’m an overthinker. I’m a hypochondriac. My husband is the complete opposite of me and I envy him so much for that.

There was a period of time after we got married when I was really stressed out (Infertility, IVF, COVID, quarantine, work…you get the picture…). My husband bluntly told me that I was being negative and it was hard to be around all the time. (My husband doesn’t share his feelings too much, so when he does, you better believe I listen!)

After that conversation, I reflected and realized I wanted to work hard to not be that person anymore. I think there was a part of me that felt like I “deserved” to be negative because of all the hard stuff I was dealing with. But when I saw how much it affected my husband, I knew I needed to make a change.

I googled how to be positive (….I mean, what else was I going to do?) The consistent thing that came up was gratitude. The only way to fight a negative mindset is with a thankful one. Ugh. This was gonna be hard.

The next day I started a gratitude journal. I forced myself to think of at least one thing to be thankful for every day.  I also made a promise to myself that when something really bad happened (I.e. another failed IVF round), I had to find at least one reason to be thankful for it.

I still carry this out everyday. It’s not easy…and some days it can feel impossible. But I would say it’s definitely been something that changes the negative mindset I can have at times and turn it into a positive one. 

I hope you can find something to be thankful for today too!