Written by Alék López
Gratitude helps people create greater happiness and enjoyment for everyday activities. Gratitude improves health and builds strong relationships not just with other people but with one's own self. Gratitude helps us feel more trusting, more social, and deepens our existing relationships. Waking up everyday with a more optimistic approach increases energy to go about your day with more enthusiasm and creates a more welcoming energy for people around you. Completing tasks with a more uplifting attitude can make the menial everyday tasks less overwhelming. To be thankful for everything that is happening now in this moment, makes my life feel more fulfilling. Gratitude allows us to take our time and enjoy what we are creating instead of rushing to get it done. It has a survival value of reciprocity: helping others and being helped in return. Research shows that there are areas of the brain involved in experiencing and expressing gratitude. The fact is: it's a practice. Every moment is a conscious effort and an opportunity to count one’s blessings Everyday, as I inhale my first waking breath I give thanks to the ones before me that fought for the rights I am enjoying today. As I take my first step, I thank the people who protect and heal the earth. As I say my first good morning, I give thanks as I am blessed to be surrounded by company and support. When I dance, it’s a practice of my humility and gratitude, as I give and receive energy. To give back, I try to support and stay aware in order to do my part to leave this world better than I received it for the next generation. When going through a difficult time, the value of gratitude gives me a sense of resilience. It gives me hope and strength to get back on my alignment. Gratitude makes me feel centered, lifted, and grounded. In times like this, in the COVID-19 epidemic, I am grateful for the people that are fighting for the People. I am grateful for the people who choose to become medical experts in-order to defeat this enemy, which is affecting us all, those who are fighting for people politically, even though we have never met. I give my thanks to those who are entertaining people on the internet, keeping people active, healthy, and hopeful. To the backbone of any country I give my biggest gratitude. They are the agriculturists who are still working in order for their nation to be nourished and fed. To every essential employee risking their health and their families' health in order to go to work. I give thanks to humanity.