Ready for the secret to changing your life? Try radically appreciating the one you are already living. Notice what is going right, even if you are not exactly where you want to be yet. Gratitude shows the universe that we are paying attention. It signals that we are receptive, awake, and truly ready for the gifts and magic it has in store for us.
Gratitude is the wine of the soul. Go on. Get drunk!
—Rumi
When the Gratitude Cup Runneth Over
I leave for France in 9 days.
Naturally, I am beyond excited. I’ll be taking the train from Paris to beautiful Montpellier, where I’ll stay for a day and a half before heading to Collioure, the jewel of the Mediterranean coast.
I’ll welcome the Wild Beasts Retreat participants in Collioure, and we’ll spend several days luxuriating in stunning accommodations, making Fauvist-inspired art, soaking in the beauty of the landscape and village, enjoying sumptuous dining experiences, and stretching ourselves into more courageous living and work.
From Collioure, I return to Paris for several days of art exhibitions, treasure hunting, and culinary adventures. At the end of my stay, a superstar VIP coaching client is flying in from Copenhagen for a day of deep strategy with me.
My Gratitude Cup runneth over.
When I am bobbing up and down in an ocean of excitement and gratitude, synchronicity is ignited, and all kinds of magical things begin happening.
Chance encounters. Introductions to stellar creators who share my interests. New clients reach out and ask for a spot on my calendar. Ideas drop in faster than I can scribble them down. My body and spirit brim with an intense joie de vivre that makes me giddy—an incredible lightness of being.
Experiencing gratitude on this level and intensity changes our frequency—and elevating that frequency is the essential foundation for changing your life.
And we don’t have to have a swishy trip planned, a perfect morning, or some extraordinary experience to feel it.
The Power of Gratitude in Action
In fact, gratitude can be most powerful when we learn to experience it in the middle of ordinary life. Because gratitude changes what we notice. It shifts our attention from what’s missing to what’s here. It reminds us that there is so much we are already being given.
And when we truly feel gratitude, not just think, “I’m grateful,” something happens. We become more present. More connected. More aware of the preciousness of our lives.
Gratitude can interrupt the constant striving for the next thing and bring us back into the only moment we ever actually have—this one.
Sometimes, it takes something startling to make us realize just how much there is to be grateful for.
Last Sunday, I was hiking in the woods with Sophie when, a few feet away from us, we heard a loud crack of a branch.
We both froze. Because when you’re in the woods, a sound like that can mean a bear is traveling nearby.
Then we heard a second CRACK!
Sophie bolted straight underneath my feet, sending me sailing up into the air and then backward. I hit the ground hard and slammed my head against a rock ledge.
A quick thought went through my mind: “This isn’t gonna be good.”
I sat still and settled back into my body. Sophie was beside herself, pacing and whining with worry. I kept telling her I was OK, but needed a minute.
The woods stopped spinning, and I turned to my left and got on my feet. I felt the back of my head and checked for a knot and blood. All clear. I dusted the moss and leaves off my butt and felt around for scrapes or cuts. All clear.
I had hit the ground and the rock ledge at precisely the right angle. I stood all the way upright and felt completely fine.
Things could have turned out very differently.
I looked up at the sky through a canopy of tall white oak, poplar, and maple trees and said, “Thank you.” I felt so incredibly lucky. For the next hour, as we made our way back to the trailhead, I was almost floating.
A few inches to the left or right, and I might have been waiting for the Highlands paramedics to fetch me off the mountain.
As I walked on, my close call reminded me that my perspective is something to actively cultivate, regardless of my circumstances.
By practicing gratitude, we train ourselves to see more of what is good, meaningful, and beautiful. Alive. And when we can truly feel that, not just intellectually understand it, we move through the world differently.
We become less consumed by what we don’t have and more deeply connected to what we do.
When we are grateful, we are paying attention. We are receptive. We are awake. We notice the subtle invitations we might have missed when we were distracted by fear, scarcity, or the relentless pursuit of what comes next.
Gratitude creates space. And life loves space. It is in that space that the unexpected can find us.
The right person, idea, opportunity.
Gratitude means that even in the middle of uncertainty, we are willing to recognize that something good is still possible.
And that willingness is powerful.
Are You Ready to Notice the Magic in Your Life?
Take a few minutes right now and ask yourself: What is something in my life that I once hoped for, prayed for, or dreamed about that I now have, but may have forgotten to be grateful for?
Write the first thing that comes to you and spend several minutes detailing this gift in your journal. Let yourself experience gratitude all over again. Really sink into it.
When we stop demanding that life prove itself to us before we appreciate it, we begin to experience life as something that is constantly giving.
Maybe magic is not something we have to create. Maybe magic is something we become capable of seeing. And gratitude is the lens.
