Wake up grateful you were born

Today we live better than Kings and Queens of the past did.

Every morning when you rise - the first thing you must always do is to meditate on how fortunate you are just to have been born and to be alive today. You are a winner of the birth lottery.

To be born free, have indoor plumbing, to have access to modern medicine, to have abundant food, to be able to choose your profession, to have loved ones live a long life, to have an education - these are from the perspective of human history - new.

Gratefulness is essential because the reality and circumstances that you were born into is not because you are any more special or deserving than anyone else. Rather, it was the result of a pure chance occurrence that you were on the lucky end of.

The vast majority of the close to 100 billion people who have ever lived - including those alive today - were born into poverty, suffering, and lives of daily struggle for simple survival.

Beyond the extreme thankfulness for simply having been born, another important gratitude is for the health and abilities you have today. It may seem that when you compare them to when you were younger - they may be have declined. However, a perspective creating exercise in gratitude is to imagine yourself at 85 years old - severely limited by age and capability. That version of you would long to be in this day you live now with the health you have, the people who are with you, and the life that still lies ahead of you.

So be grateful for today, live today, and take full advantage of today because life has a tendency to change without notice.

In my experience, a daily practice of making an entry into a gratitude journal will in time, make you a more grateful and happy person.