Your Delicious Life

I was really sick recently, I mean quite possibly the most unwell I have ever been in my life. I felt like my head and neck were in a vice with someone slowly turning it every minute of the 1,440 minutes that make up a day. And this went on for almost two weeks. So what's a girl to do when she feels like she's facing her death bed?

Look on the Bright Side

When you get sick and go down like a tonne of bricks, it's hard to 'look on the bright side'. When you feel so unwell that even positive thoughts seem to hurt your head, I mean really what is one to do. Well what I did was …look for the gifts. Instead of focusing on the pain of it all, I looked at what I was grateful for in each moment of that illness.

Be Grateful

I felt grateful my husband didn't have a lot of work on so he could take care of me and the kids (the week before he was working in Malaysia). I felt grateful our second edition of MiLK Magazine went out the day before I got sick. I felt grateful I practice regular meditation to help ease the pain of this illness somewhat. I felt grateful I have a great Osteopath who regularly changed things to slot me in at a moment’s notice. I felt grateful the doctor prescribed a neck brace (which at the time felt extreme but certainly helped speed up the recovery). And I am continually grateful for my community who help people out whenever I need.

Focus on the Good Around You

Even though I genuinely felt I was facing death, I stayed focused on the gifts, and my gratitude for all the good around me in my life. I am often grateful for my life but I had never practiced such intense gratitude at such a hard time in my life. I genuinely believe this practice of 'looking for the gifts' helped me get better much quicker.

Why is this Happening to Me?

It’s so easy to say ‘why me?’, but if instead you say WHY me? – meaning why is this happening to me and what can I learn from it, how I can grow, where are the gifts?, the experience will be a whole lot sweeter.

Focussing on the pain of anything in your life, an illness, a broken heart, or a job that's not going so well, doesn't make you feel better, infact it makes you feel worse. So if you can rise above your pain to a place of observation and gratitude, it's a wonderful starting point to the road to recovery and self-discovery.

Take A Moment to Be Grateful

Try it. I urge you to look at your life this week and literally acknowledge everything you are grateful for. If for no other reason than to feel good... and hey that can only be a good thing right.

PS A little tip. When you really start focussing on what you are grateful for, something interesting occurs, more things naturally flow in to your life to be grateful for. Like attracts like, meaning gratitude attracts more gratitude.