How to Get Past the Little Things to Appreciate Life

Imagine giving a Christmas gift to a loved one. You have spent some time thinking about it, and planning it out. Maybe you even created the gift yourself! On Christmas morning, you hand the gift to your loved one, so excited to see how they will react to all your efforts - your labour of love. As you place the gift in their hands, they get a funny look on their face and tell you that they don’t like the wrapping paper. Even when they open the gift and use it or try it on, they just keep complaining about the wrapping paper. It is almost like they don’t notice the remarkable gift because they are so caught up in the inconsequential wrapping paper.

While you may think that this is something you would never do, this analogy demonstrates something that we all do everyday, in some way. Every single time that the sun rises on a new day we are given a gift. The gift of life itself. The gift of existence. It is a beautiful gift that has been lovingly planned out and orchestrated. But instead of being grateful for the gift, we get caught up in the wrapping paper - the little inconsequential things like the weather, poor internet signal, lousy drivers, disagreements, and so on. 

This year, let’s move beyond the wrapping paper so that we can all open and fully receive the gift: life! Then we can live it to the fullest, with love and gratitude.

Here’s to Conquering Stress,
The Stress Experts