More Appreciation

I don’t know about you, but I can take so much for granted. I have the tendency to “sleepwalk” through life and not really notice all the blessings I experience IN EVERY MOMENT. It’s funny that oftentimes it takes me losing the blessing before I even noticed I had it.

For example, I had Covid a few months back and I lost my sense of smell. One day, I washed my hands with my usual fragrant soap, but this time, I couldn’t smell the soap at all, even with my hand right at my nose. I thought, “That’s strange. I didn’t know that this fragrant soap could just stop being smelly. I wonder if the soap in the other bathroom lost its smell, too.” I went to smell that one. Same problem. In my confusion, I looked for an expiration date on the bottle. I didn’t really expect to see one, and in disbelief, I came to the conclusion that the problem wasn’t the soap. I had lost my sense of smell. (I then realized that this would explain why the outdated milk I ingested earlier seemed to smell very clean, yet didn’t sit so well in my stomach. LOL) I spent the next several weeks grieving the loss of my sense of smell.

The aphorism “you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone” became very true for me in this situation. I had taken my sense of smell for granted.

Honestly, I am grateful for the loss I experienced in that time. It has highlighted to me the importance of deep appreciation of all the blessings I take for granted. Losing my sense of smell was a wakeup call for me.

I heard someone say this to me once and it has stuck with me: Imagine that tomorrow you wake up and everything in your world is gone, except what you appreciated today. What would be left?

Yikes. For me, not much, I’m afraid. I have so much, but I would lose nearly everything.

I am now trying to make the aphorism “you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone” into a false statement. I don’t want to wait until I have lost something before I recognize its specialness and importance in my life. I want to appreciate it while I have it.

This requires being aware…very aware… (It’s a work in progress!) of all that I take for granted on a daily basis, and it’s a long list. Maybe you can relate to some of these things that I’ve noticed that I take for granted, that I could have so much more appreciation for and would really miss if they were gone (in no particular order):

• 5 senses
• a physical body and the ability to move it (it’s quite fascinating…just think, you probably have no idea how you know how to move your body…what nerves to fire/what muscles to activate…yet you know how to move it.)
• a mind to think
• air to breath
• the sun, moon, stars
• running water
• hot water
• shower
• toilets
• toilet paper (yeah, don’t want to lose that!)
• chairs
• beds and other furniture
• food (not only can I not survive without food, but I love food!)
• a home
• windows (imagine not being able to see outside at all while inside a building!)
• plants and animals
• bugs (as much as I don't like them, I can’t imagine a world without them and I know they have a purpose…some kind of purpose…right? LOL)
• rocks 
• sunsets/sunrises
• clouds and rain (I guess snow…but would I really be upset if I lost it? The jury’s out.)
• music
• clothing
• electricity
• fire and heat
• books and the written language to transfer knowledge and ideas
• the spectrum of emotions (sure, I’d like to say just the positive ones, but the negative ones have a role to play in my life, too!)
• family, community, connections
• the ability to form connections
• challenges and stressors (I don’t want to lose these either, for without them, I wouldn’t grow!)

This is a tiny list, but as you can see, there is so much to appreciate.

What do you take for granted?

If tomorrow you lost everything, except what you appreciated today, what would be left?

How would your life be different if you experienced more appreciation?

Here’s to conquering stress.

With heart,

The Stress Experts