It is Remembrance Sunday here in the UK today; a day which always prompts me to consider how fortunate I truly am. Like most people, I have days where I feel down for various reasons; when it feels like nothing is going right, when work issues are preying on my mind, when I disappoint myself for procrastinating too much and achieving very little, when I just feel generally down in the dumps. Then days like today occur again and I think of my beloved Grandad, who was one of the finest men I have ever known, taking part in the D-Day landings. I think of him and all his comrades, who endured extreme hardship and witnessed things so horrific, most of us could barely comprehend what they must have gone through, all to secure a brighter future for all of us. When I think of this, I appreciate just what I have in life. I’ve referenced this in previous posts but I’m extremely grateful to be living, to be relatively fit, to have a loving family, a great friendship group, a roof over my head, a job, meals on the table every day, clean water, heat, electricity, and a comfortable bed to lie in each night. I am truly blessed.

I wish I could remember to be this grateful every day but the truth is, I don’t. There are days when I forget to think like that, when it’s all too easy to get bogged down in day-to-day life, and it’s easier to bitch and moan than to show gratitude. Those days when it’s easier to scroll through social media than do something constructive; those days when I use tiredness as a so-called valid excuse for doing very little; those days when I let a bad day at work affect me and take my foul mood home with me rather than dropping it in the bin on the way out of the office.

After a day, or a few days, like this, some internal trigger usually kicks in to shake me out of that melancholy. I do try to be positive every day but I’m only human and I’m yet to meet anyone who doesn’t suffer from down days every now and again. I can fully understand why people complete daily gratitude journals (for me, it’s the daily ‘something that made me smile today’ list) and it’s vitally important that we need to search for positives on a daily basis, whether that be a journal / diary entry, a phone reminder to be grateful, finding 5 minutes for quiet reflection, or any other method which works for you. We are all capable of adding something to our daily routine to prompt this. We owe it to ourselves and we absolutely owe it to those who fought for us, especially those who gave their lives.

I know this is quite similar to my post from a fortnight ago but it’s vitally important, therefore I have no qualms about returning to this theme, offering a few new insights, and emphasising the point again. It isn’t easy to do so on a daily basis but please do try to consider what you should be grateful for as often as possible, for your own peace of mind if for nothing else.

To my Grandad and his comrades – thank-you and we shall never forget.

To everyone else, thanks for reading and please do take care.

Best wishes,

Mick