3 min. Coffee Break to Your Peace and Joy
What a precious word gratitude is. Gratitude to me is one of the things that seem so simple to practice but harder to do. And it is hard to practice for many people as far as I know in my community. If you are one of these people, continue reading this article to get some different insight and tips on how to be grateful every single day and create more peace in your life.
Before I jump into a very beneficial exercise for us to practice gratitude, I want to share something that I believe is also helpful for you.
I have not been feeling well recently, my body was weak, my mind was cloudy, and I absolutely didn’t want to do anything or eat anything. I was also a little worried that I might have caught Covid and if I did, I might have spread it to my parents. I had to cancel a lot of meetings and I was barely serving my clients. In that moment of feeling not useful and lack of motivation for life. I stopped… I stopped worrying about all those things that I had to get done. I just thought I needed to be ok and healthy to be able to do all of them. If I am not here as a whole healthy body, mind and soul, then nothing matters. And I always say this to my clients and my people “YOU are the first thing that you have to do and take care of among all those freaking to-do lists that you have. If YOU don’t exist, then what’s matter? PAUSE…”
Really think about if you are not healthy in your body, mind and soul, NOTHING ever matters. Keep this in your mind, get a little bit more comfortable wherever you’re reading this from and we shall begin our exercise ;)
I encourage you to get a cup of coffee or tea for this. Trust me it will help you to get the most out of this exercise :)
Let’s start with the common question:
Why is it so hard for us to feel grateful and be ok with whatever comes in our lives?
If you have already had an answer for this, go ahead and write it down somewhere even on your phone. And, let me tell you what the common answers are: “I have a lot of problems and I cannot think of my blessings. I don’t have anything to be grateful for right now. Are you really asking me this among all the negativity I have? Because I am not lucky like you. How can I be grateful when I don’t have this and that?..” I’m sure you can add more here. But the point is our mind tends to find negativity instead of positive things around us. It is in our human nature, so there is nothing to feel bad or guilty about it. However, we can change, you can change your perspective on this and you can create more peace in your life.
Now, I invite you to think of these questions:
“Why are you so lucky?
What are some things that you are so thankful for in your life?
Who are those people that you feel so loved by?
What are some little pleasures you have such as drinking a cup of coffee in the morning?
…
I encourage you to write those down on a piece of paper to feel deeper in this exercise that we are doing together. (Yes, I’m doing while I write these lines for you:)) Once you finish writing down your answers, take a deep breath in and exhale. One more time, take a deeeep breath in and exhale it all out. Take one sip from your coffee or tea. Close your eyes and continue thinking of these questions. In a few seconds later, open your eyes and really look at your answers to those questions. Hold your cup, feel the warmth of your drink and think of the following questions. What do you feel? Has your breathing changed? Do you feel a little bit more peaceful in your heart?
You probably are feeling waaaayyy better than before you did the exercise. I call this exercise “Coffee o’clock” ;) What if you do this exercise (Coffee o’clock) every day for just 3 min? 3 min. Coffee o’clock will create peace and joy :)
I am so glad you took the time and read this article. I hope you enjoyed the exercise and feel better right now. If you want to connect, you can email me at burcu@joyyburcu.com or follow me on instagram @joyyburcu
I would love to connect with you and hear how you felt about the Coffee o’clock :)
Until next time, stay with Joy!
Burcu Onaranel
