42 Days of Gratitude: Days 12 and 13

Monday was a day of sleep deprivation which led to more pain from my herniated discs. There is a value to pain. It was a reminder to take better care of myself. I never could do without at least 7 hours of sleep. But Sunday night I had a rare episode of a problem getting to sleep, and I really don’t know why.

The 42 days of Gratitude experiment is primarily to establish the habit of being grateful every day. On Monday I was grateful that I knew what to do to take care of my back and that led to a glorious sleep of almost 10 hours and that was what I was grateful for on Tuesday. SLEEP, glorious sleep.

I awoke totally revived, feeling strong. One more therapeutic dosage of ibruprophen and 20 minutes of ice, and I was able to drive for over two hours without pain. So these two days I am grateful that I know what to do to stay healthy and happy, and that I actually do it. I expect some pain in my life. I expect that no matter what I do I will occasionally have to deal with my herniated discs putting pressure on various nerves. But I know what to do to relieve this and I am committed to keeping my muscles strong and do whatever it takes to walk through life.

It has been almost three weeks since I started practice gratitude and saying thank you for all my daily blessings. Being grateful on Thanksgiving always makes that day wonderful, so I ask can I make everyday wonderful by being thankful and expressing it every day? I say YES but it takes time and practice to create habits, but I do find myself thinking about gratitude every day, even if I don’t write about it.