Happy Monday, my new gratitude friends!
Today I bid goodbye to my daughter who went back to college. What a wonderful winter break we had and the relationship we have is growing into something sacred and deep for me. Although I’m so sad that both kids are back at their schools, I’m grateful for the time we had and grateful that they wanted to come back.

My pain levels have me struggling today, but when I think of all the parts of my body that DON’T hurt, it makes it much easier to deal with what does. I search for the special moments in my life where I am able to briefly forget about the pain (doing something artistic, laughing with a friend, writing a note online…ha!) My group helps me along with that too.

The temps are cold here again and I am grateful for heat in my home and food in the refrigerator to nourish me. I’m grateful for the love of my family and my kitten who never leaves my side.

My life is charmed when I embrace gratitude.

Have a beautiful day!

Wonderful post! I practice surrender daily as a woman living with chronic illness. For years I fought my condition and obsessed about it…trying to cure myself. I lost all emotional serenity and lost many years that I could have been LIVING versus simply existing.

By letting go, I have not given up hope and certainly will never stop trying new things to make my life easier, but I no longer make it my primary goal. God willing I have a lot of life to live, and I don’t want to waste anymore time complaining about my situation and trying to change something that I cannot change.

By surrendering, I have MORE freedom and, most importantly, I have found true happiness.

Thank you for your beautiful words!

Good morning, friends in gratitude!
Today I am grateful for my husband, who turns 49 years old today. I have been with him since high school (we were 16!) and I’ve been in love with him every day since then. He’s always supportive of my endeavors (no matter how wacky!) and has stuck by me with my chronic illness for the past 18 years, my alcoholism (I’ve been in recovery for 5 years) and all of the ups and downs in between. I’m grateful to have found my “person” and I’m so fortunate to be able to grow old with him and, today, celebrate his 49th birthday. Happy Birthday to him!

Today I am grateful for a beautiful day with my daughter who is going back to college in 2 days.

My chronic illness often prevents me from having full days, but today I was able to handle going to my fellowship meeting to support a friend, then have lunch with my parents and daughter, and even go to the mall to shop a bit so she could use some gift cards that she’d gotten for Christmas.

I’m grateful that my daughter enjoys spending time with me and that I was able to give her my time fully. I’m grateful that my pain was not problematic enough for me to have to end the day early. I’m grateful for eyes that see my blessings and a heart that feels it.

I’m grateful for this place and for finding all of you fellow gratitude seekers.

Have a beautiful day!

I can continue to be a source of positivity to my FB group “Attitude of Gratitude with Chronic Pain.” We are a group of people whose bodies just don’t work the way they’re supposed to, and rather than live in the problem, we choose to live in the solution. This is sometimes easier than done, however, so I will show and share my own gratitude in the hopes of passing it on to the membership. They have done the same for me many, many times.

Have a beautiful day, everyone!

Hi there! New to the Gratitude Lounge but certainly not new to GRATITUDE as it is a very big part of my life.

I run a Facebook group called “Attitude of Gratitude with Chronic Pain” where we focus on learning to live with our conditions using gratitude and positivity. We have a strict ‘no-complaining’ rule and after 3 years we have over 3.200 members now who say that gratefulness has changed their entire lives and is more effective than any medication or treatment they’ve ever taken (this is not meant to be in place of medications, however!)

I also have a personal website called Gratitude Addict (www.gratitudeaddict.com) and am writing a book based on the wonders of using gratitude to help live in the solution with chronic conditions. If you know of anyone who may need a change in how they live with chronic pain/illness/disability (physical OR emotional pain), feel free to send them our way! https://www.facebook.com/groups/attitudeofgratitudewithchronicpain/

Today I am grateful for access to clean drinking water, to have a day that I can “reboot” as my pain has me struggling a bit today, and I’m grateful to have found this community. I have taken many classes through demo.gratefulness.org, but didn’t know about this lounge.

It’s very nice meeting you all!