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It’s All a Gift

Kristen Vandivier
5 min readNov 27, 2019

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Adrian and I taking it all in.

Thanksgiving is the one day when we all pause and think about the things for which we’re grateful. However, gratitude does not have to be a once-a-year event, it can be a daily practice that greatly enhances your life experience. I’m not talking about simply putting a jar next to your bed and placing ten things in a night you’re grateful for like raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens (though this is great too and if you’re doing it, bravo). Practicing gratitude means shifting your entire world view from one in which there are good things and bad things in life and it’s all about accumulating good things for happiness and avoiding bad things to the view that it’s all a gift. Everything. Every experience, every happening, every victory, every loss, every reunion, every parting, every sunrise, every power outage, every lost iPhone, every moment with someone we love. The question is, can you detect the gift?

How is all this bull$#!+ I have to deal with a gift?

I’m sure there were a few eye rolls above. “How exactly is losing my iPhone, or suffering from a toothache, or getting stuck in traffic, or all the tedious, horrible things we all have to deal with on a daily basis a gift? And now, if I don’t feel like it’s a gift, do I get to feel guilty about that too?” Stick with me here. It’s not that you can’t still be pissed off if you forget an appointment or you should celebrate the next time your hemorrhoids flare up. Your feelings are…

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Kristen Vandivier
Kristen Vandivier

Written by Kristen Vandivier

Instructor of Vedic Meditation and Founder of The Vedic Method and Meditation Without Borders. Also, mother to Scarlett, Delphine and Adrian.

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