In December of 2017, my little family and I immigrated from South Africa to Canada. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. To get myself through my first year in a foreign country, I accepted a gratitude challenge from a friend. I reasoned that “forcing” myself to find something I’m grateful for every day for a year would help me focus on what is good in my life, instead of on what is “wrong” with my life. I committed to sharing a daily gratitude post on Facebook. Somehow sharing it publicly made it more real, and I felt accountable to continue the practice every day. There were some hard days where I really felt I wanted to give up the practice. Having made the commitment to share a daily post about what I’m grateful for however, meant I would continue to honour my commitment to myself.
365 days of gratitude turned out to be the most transformational thing I could have done that year. […]