Five steps to gratitude

Be that guy on the beach chair.

I just want to tell you right now that there is not a list of five steps in this post. It is merely a reminder that despair is in the details. Sometimes, when we get mired in all the things we need to do, all the things we want to do, and all the people around us, it can get overwhelming and tiresome. And in those moments where you feel overwhelmed, joyless, hopeless, take five steps back. Notice that, when you put each moment into the grand perspective of your life, and your life into the grand puzzle that is existence, and existence as a representation of all that ever is and all that ever was, you will start to feel the lightness of it all.

Not yet feeling the lightness? Take five more psychic steps back. And another five. And yet another five. Keep taking steps back, away from your situation, until you can feel yourself so far removed that you once again a clarity around the grand vision of life. Once you're there, stay there. Take a few breaths. Feel your heart widen with the sense of belonging exactly where you are in this moment. Then start to move back to the details, taking the feeling of the grand gratitude with you at every step.