Today is a gift

Today is a gift

We have so so so many reasons to be excited about today.

Far too often we forget about them and start to complain and to feel bad about today. Don’t let this happen.

Start to count your blessings and realize why you should love your life just now, just today:

  1. Today you are healthy

Health is one of the biggest gifts! Many of us are so used to being healthy that we forget how good it really is. Only when we are sick we start to appreciate the blessing of being healthy. Don't wait to be sick but be thankful now that you are healthy.

  1. Today there is someone who loves you

Just today, if there is somebody in your life who loves you, you are rich, you have something many people long for. It is terrible to be lonely and you have something so precious.

  1. Today do love

Don't be loved only, no, do love! You can love and give love as well and it feels wonderful.

  1. Today you have something to eat

And most probably you have not only something to eat but decent food you like. Remember that many people have nothing or not something they can choose but only a bit what keeps them alive. We can eat several times per day whereas others struggle to eat once a day.

  1. Today you live in peace

There are far too many areas with war on this planet, people who have to leave their homes behind to be safe, who have lost family members, who have an uncertain future ahead. Be grateful for the peace!

  1. Today you have time 

Time to read, time to do what you like, time just for yourself even if it's five minutes. There are persons out there with no time left to enjoy life, some need to work 24/7 to feed their families, some need to be alerted every second to avoid dangerous situations, we are lucky to live in such a civilized way that we can enjoy our time.

  1. Today you have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink

You are not breathing through a mask and can drink unfiltered water just from the tap? Many people in the world cannot even imagine that this is possible. Air to breathe and water to drink are very rare in some areas on this planet.

  1. Today you are safe

This one is tricky as nowadays we cannot be safe anywhere but still we are safe when we compare our life to the life of many others. We visit places without worrying too much and that’s something to be thankful for.

  1. Today you can give

Are you giving? If not try it, it feels so good to give because you receive happiness. Give your neighbor a piece of your cake and you made two persons happy, the neighbor and yourself. Give a smile to a stranger and you receive a smile back. Giving is wonderful!

  1. Today you woke up and it is a new day

NOW, that is where we are. Don't worry about the past as it's gone. Now is a new day and you can start freshly into a new day.

 

Light up your life

Light up your life

Light up your life.png

What is lightning up your life? There are many small things which can instantly lighten you up so that you feel happy and at ease for a moment. We have to appreciate more the small things we liked so much. Why shouldn’t a cup of hot chocolate be able to put a smile on our face? I don’t need the big things like cars, luxury weekend or diamond rings to be happy.

Make a list of what you like and you quickly realize that’s often the smallest thing which are sufficient. Here is the list of my favorites and be sure if I think longer and longer about it I will have a huge list….

1. Hot cup of chocolate or tea in combination with a good book or movie

2. My room just lightened up with lots of candles

3. Laying down on my bed under the wide opened window on a summer evening to listen to the sounds outside and breathing in the air

4. The smell of fresh washed bed sheets

5. Falling asleep in the arms of my love feeling just safe and sheltered

6. Seeing the smile in my neighbors face after she got dinner for free because I’m always cooking more than I’m able to eat.

7. Documentations about the most beautiful places on earth

8. Waking up in the morning and already smelling freshly brewed coffee

9. Walking with bare feet on grass

10. A short nap on a Sunday afternoon

11. Talking for hours with my friend or sister on the phone

12. Planning on how to surprise someone as the smile is already paying back enough

13. Listening to the birds chirping at five am and knowing that I will sleep now

14. Sometimes I hear a saxophonist in the middle of the night and the music is heard from far away but totally beautiful

15. Enjoy the silence after midnight when the city starts to sleep

16. Feeling the sun on my skin

17. Cookies and a glass of milk

18. Reading until I fall asleep

19. Sitting in front of the heater and warm up my back on a cold winter day

20. Listening to the sound of waves

…and so many more…

What is happiness?

What is happiness?
What is happiness_

Why are people, who have less money, more happy than those who are having more?

Because they focus more on values which many of the more wealthy ones seem to have forgotten about.

What are the most important values in life?

Isn’t it mainly the people who surround you? I see so many running after the newest trends, if it’s electronic, fashion or cars, but what is it worth if no one is there to enjoy it with you? You could have the biggest house full of luxury up to the roof but if you are sitting there alone and sad it doesn’t matter at all. We are complaining so much although most of us have more than the majority of all people on this world is even able to think of.

We have homes and full fridges, showers or bath tubs, supermarkets around the corner, cars in front of our house or in the garage, a heater for cold days and air cons for hot days, enough money to at least afford a computer with access to the web, because if you are able to read my blog on the web you belong to this group of people too!

But still these persons who don’t have one single piece of it, who don’t know if they are able to feed their children the next day, who wear the same clothes since years because they have only this one pair of trousers, who never sat in a car or watched a movie on TV, seem to be more happy than many of us.

What is it the thing they don’t do? They don’t complain!

Instead they are thankful for what they have and cherish it.

These people stick together in good and in bad times, they support each other and share, even if there’s not much to share. And here we are, having enough to feed half of the city but still looking out for more.

Why don’t we start to appreciate what we already have, how lucky we should be to be born in countries which are not suffering poverty, war, epidemic plagues, suppression…

I realize in myself that for instance if I am cooking something which turns out to be so nice I don’t like to eat it alone. It’s making me happier if I can share it with someone. And that’s just a small example.

Sometimes, when I switch randomly through TV channels, I stop fascinated at documentations about different peoples and how they live. You can go from Asia to Africa, from the south pole to the north pole, all poor countries where the people mostly need to fight for survival, exactly there you see the brightest smiles and lots of laughing eyes shining brightly. Communities which care for each other, each single person is valued as member of the society…

I don’t want to start now and say that we all have to share all we have or to get rid of our luxury life to live in poverty but what we need to do is to stop complaining and appreciating our life.

We are blessed because we were born in countries without many of these problems. That doesn’t mean our life’s are free from problems but compared to others we are truly blessed.

Just cherish the day and say thanks.