4 things that I am grateful for

Lifestyle, Mental Health and Wellbeing 3 Minutes

One of the things that I have come to appreciate a lot is the importance of gratitude. Recently, I have practiced gratitude a lot more and upon reflection, there are things I am extremely grateful for. I wanted to dedicate this blog post to talk about the things I am grateful for, and hopefully some of the things I talk about are things you can relate to as well.

Having a secure job

As some of you may now, I finished university this June, and I started my first full-time job in September. In other words, I was fortunate enough to get a job straight out of university. The job market is such that it is panic among graduates and fellow job seekers when it comes to finding jobs at the moment, as there are less jobs that are being advertised and the jobs that are being advertised are more competitive than ever before. Furthermore, I get to go in the office twice a week, so I get the face the face interaction which is so useful when it comes to starting a new job and building relationships. The fact that my actuarial career is underway at a company which has a fantastic culture is something I am grateful for, especially in times like these.

Amazing family and friends

I am particularly grateful for this as I know that not everyone has this. I have been around my family pretty much 24/7 recently, and I am so lucky that they have been so supportive and trusted me with the freedom to do the things I want to do. We have also watched movies and played games as a family which has been a great way to spend time (although sadly my brother wins most the time we play games!). Furthermore, I have been able to maintain some brilliant friendships with some wonderful people, and I honestly feel that I have friends that give me positive energy and help me become the best version of myself. I love the fact that my close friendships are friendships that have happened naturally and haven’t been forced. I really enjoy keeping in touch with my friends and chatting via zoom and face to face when possible, and I want to say a big thank you to my family and friends for being awesome.

Knowing that I have things that I can look forward to

Lately, I have done a lot of things that I have looked forward to doing. For example, Zoom calling and meeting friends to face to face is one thing I have done on a regular basis, and I have looked forward for every Zoom call or face to face catch up with a friend. Furthermore, as mentioned before, I have also had the opportunity to work in the office twice a week, which is something I enjoy and actually prefer over working from home.  Now all of this is easy to take for granted. However, the point I want to make here is not everyone is lucky enough to have lots of things that they can look forward to. Let’s take the things I have mentioned above as an example. Although I have great friends that I look forward to catching up with, some people aren’t so lucky with friendships for whatever reason. Moreover, I am grateful to have the option of going in the office, some people would love to work in the office but they can’t at the moment.

Having things to look forward helps massively with your mental health and wellbeing, and help you get through a hard time. But some people’s situations are such that they don’t have many things that they can look forward to. This could be due to reasons such as being in an abusive relationship, financial problems, poverty, job insecurity etc.

Having hobbies that help me learn

 If someone had asked me what my top 3 hobbies are, I would say that they are blogging, reading and socialising with people. What I love about these hobbies is that each hobby presents me with learning opportunities. I learn useful time management skills from writing blogs (as I am currently balancing writing blogs with a full-time job), as well as how to be creative when it comes to writing blog posts. I learn a lot of useful things that help me with my personal development by reading books and articles, and the people I socialise with indirectly encourage me to constantly learn and become the best version of myself. The reason I am grateful for having hobbies that help me learn is that it allows me to develop as a person, which as a result helps with my wellbeing and happiness. Having a good level of wellbeing and happiness is probably the most important thing in life, if you aren’t happy then it will affect other aspects of your life. Therefore, you should highly value the things that help you with your happiness, and for me, hobbies that help me learn is one of them.

What are you grateful for? Comment in the comment section below!

Published by nirajshah2003

A lifestyle and mental health blogger that aims to help others by writing blogs :)

Published

42 thoughts on “4 things that I am grateful for”

  1. I am grateful for finally getting back out into the garden after many many years. It’s Spring here, so I am enjoying taking my breaks outside on the patio and contemplating pulling all out garden projects together. Similarly, with forming a duo and developing up an extensive play list – hopefully to start playing venues in a year from now. We have been catching up with friends regularly in more recent times. I do have my own consultancy and so I am extremely grateful to my clients who have kept me extremely busy this year and all through the pandemic 9with plenty of work ahead).

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    1. I love the garden! It looks like you are having a great time in the garden lately so I am glad. I actually currently work at a consultancy so I can appreciate how important the clients are to the business, and I wish you all the best with it!

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      1. Thank you so much, Niraj. I am having a great time. I had lunch out there today, which was a nice thing to do after several video conference calls this morning.

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  4. I also started working very soon after graduating and was so blessed to have received the offer even before I got the diploma. It was tough to see all of my friends struggling to find jobs (and some still haven’t seven years later) so I have never and will never take that for granted.

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  6. Yess gratitude is so important! It really helps me stay positive and focus on the good parts of the day. I’m glad you’ve found it helpful too 😊 the more we write these things down, the more we feel them for what they truly are

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  11. Yes, gratitude is the key to surviving times like these, I believe. As you mention, having a job gives hope for the future and the feeling of being productive. I have read so much about people learning to make bread at home during lockdowns and how much they have enjoyed it. It helped them to feel productive. They accomplished something good for themselves and for their family.

    Family is the incentive, many times, to keep going. Knowing they are there for you and you for them helps one to look for things to make life more meaningful. It also ties in with your third concept of looking forward to something. If we cannot look forward to school or work, we can usually look forward to those games or other activities with family. In my younger years, I played games with my family. We played scrabble and cards mostly. Sometimes we would play other games. I was never in it to win, although I did often win at scrabble. On the other hand, usually other games were lost, but I did not play for the win. I played for the time with family. When we play games, we help each other to learn how to strategize in life. It should always be a regular part of family interaction.

    Hobbies are extremely important. My hobbies get me through each and every day with a feeling of accomplishment to some degree. I also love to learn. I am grateful for the ability to continue learning, even now. I love to research topics to write about. I may be just refreshing old data stored in my brain, or I may be learning a completely new thing. Either way, I love to read, research and write both prose and poetry–as you can see. During times like these, it is important to keep the focus outside of ourselves mostly, but look inward for strength and recognize that as a positive thing and something to be grateful for.

    Finally, I am grateful to God and Jesus Christ in Heaven above, because when I am having difficulty with things, they give me strength. They and my faith have pulled me through many things. You are to be commended for sharing with such open expression. It helps others more than most know. Blessings!

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    1. Thank you for sharing this, you make some very good points here. I agree that family can provide motivation for you to keep going when things are not going well. And yes, even I look forward to playing games with my family, and we also play cards!

      Hobbies are so so important for your wellbeing. It is really interesting you write poetry, but it is a good way to unwind and relax. Constantly being able to learn as well is so satisfying and fulfilling, and if you can do that via your hobbies, even better!

      And I know that faith in God can help a lot as God gives you strength in the tough times!

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      1. Yes, soooooo true! My most frequent go-to verse in times of stress and troubles is Philippians 4:13 — “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Through my life I have said it, thought it, held it up as prayer many, many times.
        Yes, my poetry is a way to relax. I only started to be able to write about current events in the last decade. I thought I could not, but I find I can.
        Thank You for stopping by, reading and commenting. I am working on revamping my site. It is going to take a few more days. Then I can concentrate on writing–a very important must right now as I have actually begun writing my novel. I pray it will be a success. Blessings!

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  12. So happy that you have so much to be grateful for! It’s so important to recognize your blessings, or whatever you want to call it. I’m very grateful for my partner, my family and being able to do the creative things that I do!

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  13. some mornings as I begin to pray, or at other times if I am disheartened or tired, I begin to count my blessings… and I don’t think I could ever get to the end of the list. It is certainly a great motivator to have an attitude of gratitude and quickly dispels gloom and brings cause for rejoicing and Joy. As I read your post the first 3 things that came to my mind were – Jesus, people and warmth! lol.

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  15. Being grateful for the blessings of life is good anytime, and I believe it is an important key to happiness. You might repost this for the US Thanksgiving holiday this month if you have readers from the US. I enjoyed reading this, and I am happy that you found a job. Many people are not so lucky right now. All the best, Niraj!

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  18. You are so right about the job thing! So many new graduates have been having difficulties finding a job since this pandemic started, and although I still have a year to go before I graduate from university, it’s still put a lot of pressure on so many of us now. Congrats on your job!

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