Hello beautiful people,
Today I was trying to figure out why I felt so bored with my daily existence. I know, yes, we’re hitting the ground running from the start with no warm-up. I could tell that I was grateful for my overall life, but everything still felt very blah. Then I saw a TikTok video of someone talking about romanticizing their life, and I was like… how the hell do I do that?
I’ve spent a large portion of my life in fight-or-flight mode, with my nervous system constantly in an elevated state. At some point, I transitioned into what I like to call “The Glory Years” when I lived in California. That’s when I traded my trauma-filled existence for an exhilarating, adrenaline-rush lifestyle… do you see where I’m going with this yet? I was hiking along cliff sides and ziplining through jungles in distant countries. I went from a highly activated nervous system triggered by trauma to one activated by adrenaline-junkie activities.
So no wonder life feels boring now, I’m used to living in a highly activated nervous system, whether the activation was good or bad. Now that things are calm, I don’t really know how to interact or engage with “life” as it is.
I started noticing that when people romanticize their lives, it’s the simplest things, morning tea in their favorite cup by a window, listening to music while burning candles and incense, or working on a DIY project. That’s when it hit me: there’s a difference between living life with gratitude and living life in gratitude.
Living with gratitude means you move through your days, weeks, months, or years and have moments where you feel an overwhelming sense of appreciation, but the rest can still feel “blah.” Living in gratitude means you’re actively existing in that appreciation every moment of the day, week, month, or year.
Here’s an example. Normally, I have moments in my day where I give thanks for something I’m grateful for. One time there was a really bad hurricane that touched down along the East Coast. I worked from home while it passed through our area. Throughout my normal day, I’d see updates about people affected by the storm, like an apartment complex completely flooded out. Moments like that reminded me how fortunate I am. I would send up a prayer for those affected, give thanks for my power being on and my home being safe and dry, and then go on about my day.
That was me living with gratitude.
But when you are so grateful for all that you have and all that you are, regardless of what is or isn’t happening around you, you start to live in a constant state of gratitude. You honor, focus on, and actively participate in the existence you’re grateful for. You wake up fully aware of the blessing of having a bed, covers, and pillows, so you enjoy taking care of your space. You enjoy making your bed because you’re living in appreciation of it.
To live in gratitude vs. with gratitude is to fully understand that what you have and who you are is a blessing that deserves your attention and celebration.
So now I get it: to romanticize your life is simply to celebrate all of the beauty and goodness your current life already holds. It’s living in a constant state of appreciating, observing, and recognizing everything, big or small, that you’re grateful for. If you spend your days acknowledging, celebrating, and taking care of all the gifts you’re blessed to have, from running water to having a job, from a roof over your head to that one person you love and who loves you (platonic or otherwise), you begin living a life in gratitude.
Living life with gratitude can sometimes make you feel stuck in your day to day, even if you sprinkle appreciation throughout the year. Especially when you drift toward thoughts of what you don’t have, or worse, when you compare yourself and your life to others and what they do have.
At the end of the day, we have the power to make so many decisions about our lives, and those choices, big or small, can make a HUGE difference in how we experience life as a whole. It’s time to use new insight to see life differently, but more importantly, to experience life differently.
See you on the other side.
Love you lots! – Sacred
Finally Loving Life 
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