Attitude of Gratitude

I am currently undertaking a change in my life. A kind of “makeover” of my soul. At the moment I am focussing on gratitude, putting myself into the attitude of gratitude. When I looked up the definition of gratitude on Google this is what I found:

Noun:

The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for     and to return kindness.

 

Gratitude is one of the most powerful tools that you can use when it comes to creating peace and happiness in your life. And in the end isn’t that what we all want? I am a pretty lucky person. I live a good life. I have food on my table, nice clothes, access to good health care. I have great parents that took my son and I in after the split from my ex-partner. Of course my life has its tough moments but on whole, I don’t really have a lot that I can complain about.

When I first decided to embark on my makeover I sat and thought about the thing that I am the most grateful for. What sprang to mind is the birth of my son. At 30 weeks pregnant my hind waters broke. I spent a few days in hospital, with the doctors feeding me antibiotics, steroids and medications to help prevent me from going into labour. After this I was allowed to go home with close monitoring, I was no longer allowed to work, and there was every possibility that I could go into labour at any time. This lasted until I 34 weeks along, before the doctors agreed that I needed to be induced. The labour and birth was quite uneventful, however within a few hours of his birth, Master A was in an ambulance on his way to the Womens and Childrens Hospital, where they have a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Master A was placed on respirators and morphine, to assist his breathing, as he had been born with immature lungs. He was in a humidicrib, with what seemed like hundreds of tubes and lines going into him for 10 days. After this he was finally able to breathe on his own, and we were finally able to hold him. He was transferred back to our local hospital so that he could learn how to feed. This proved to be a difficult and lengthy task. The day after coming back to our hospital the Paediatricians found a hole in his heart. 9 days later we were finally able to take our little boy home.

To cut a long story short, the hole closed over and apart from an early diagnosis of asthma at 13 months old, Master A is now a happy and healthy boy. I cannot help but think every day just how lucky I am that he was ok. That I didn’t give birth at 30 weeks, that when they transferred Master A to the bigger hospital, they were able to find me a room there too, so I was able to stay in the same hospital as him for 5 days. I am extremely grateful that he was able to come home within 3 weeks and be with his family. We were lucky, and I am still, 18 months on, so grateful for it.

When you try to add an attitude of gratitude to your everyday life, try to focus on the little things as well as the big things. The dance that your child does to their favourite song, the beautiful dinner your mum cooks for you, the massage that your partner gives you. All of these things are beautiful, and feeling grateful for having them means that you are able to appreciate them, which in turn brings peace and happiness into your life.

Following this post, for the month on the Me and My Munchkin Facebook page I will be posting one thing that I am grateful for every day. I would love if you would follow these posts and join me in saying what you are grateful for. All you need to do is click on the Facebook link to the right of the page.