the art of living cheerfully

~ one hundred gratitudes ~

#18 : Walking the Cornish Coastal path and seeing the Bedruthan Steps with my love.

Around every headland was more and more beauty. We were surrounded by it. Fresh air, chatting to my love about everything and nothing and feeling like my life was in proportion and balance next to all this natural beauty.

**************************************

A couple of weeks ago I signed up for an e.course called "the art of living cheerfully".

It began today.

I haven't been feeling especially miserable but rather that there are possibilities in life that Frank's diagnosis and the consequent white noise put out of my head.

I have been feeling ready for a small new project.

To spend some time allowing myself to dream and be grateful and seek out the joy every day felt like just what I should be doing right now.

I would like to share a little of the content with you all as the weeks of the course go by.

What attracted me to the course, aside from loving the idea of a project of a creative nature just for me, was Maddie's use of the word "cheerful".

She wasn't promising happiness or a state of Nirvana but a chance to be active in being cheerful.

One of the first exercises is to list one hundred things for which we are grateful.

ONE HUNDRED.

From the past and present, situations and people, experiences and places ... one hundred.

And I am also to write about why I am grateful for these things.

And that is where the joy will start flying about, I think!

Really focusing on why I am grateful for these things will drag them squarely into the forefront of my brain and make the feelings of experiencing them come back.

How bloody cheerful am I going to be doing this?!!

I am already thinking of Cornwall and those blue waters.

And I am smiling...

What are you grateful for?