Daily Gratitude Log 12

Gratitude Challenge: 
Take Action on Your Plan from Day 11!








For today's challenge, I am supposed to take action on the things I have listed in Day 11's challenge which I have taken for granted.

My challenge not take mom for granted would not be easy to accomplish as mom tends to take charge when it comes to cooking the meals.  Sometime, even though,  I have told her that I would be cooking lunch, she would prepare the ingredients by cutting all of them ready for me to cook.   So I would really have to take charge and get her out of the kitchen when I am cooking the meal.   I also plan to take her out for a meal whenever I have the chance and not just wait for special occasions. 

I remembered that my friend's birthday would be in October.  I plan to give her a surprise call to wish her on her special day instead of just posting on her Facebook. 

Conserving water is an on-going project and I will try my best not to waste water.   Water used for washing my clothes will be reused to flush the toilet. 

  

3 Things I am Grateful for Today...

(i) my yoga teacher for not teaching the intense shoulder stretching poses after I told him that I am having shoulder pain before the start of the class

(ii) getting early to class and spending time catching up with one of my yoga teacher before the class. 

(iii) receiving a prompt email reply to a query at work. 

Daily Gratitude Log 11

Gratitude Challenge
List 3 Things You Tend to Take For Granted (and What You Intend to do About Them) 

I think there are many things I tend to take for granted, but these are the first 3 things that I thought of when I saw this challenge. 

For the past few days, as mom has not been feeling well, I realized I tend to take her for granted especially when it came to having a home-cooked meal waiting for me when I came home from work.    When she was away at my brother's place, I had to buy packed food home or prepare some of my own meals when I reached home.   Although sometimes, i would  cook some of the meals during the weekends, I will make it a point to do so more often or I would take her out for a meal so that she can have a rest. 

Recently I met back a friend I have not seen for ages during a wedding dinner.  We had not kept in touch although we were quite close at one time.   When the MC informed that we can validate our parking ticket to a one-entry fee, I found that I had left my ticket in my car.  My friend without hesitation, accompanied me to the car-park to collect my ticket.  When we went back into the dinning hall, we spent a lot of time catching up and I realized that I have taken our friendship for granted.  I will make it a point to call her and ask her how she is doing and maybe arrange for us to meet once in a while.  

Water is one thing I often take for granted until there is a dry spell in the weather and there is an announcement that there will be a water cut in my area.   We would then have to store some water for our daily use.   I will make it a point to try to conserve water and ensure that I switch off the tap when I am brushing my teeth.  

3 things I am Grateful for Today....

(i) for today's challenge for reminding me not to take things for granted.

(ii) for a clean and tidy house.  

(iii) for the company of my fellow Ashtanga buddy during our Mysore self practice this morning.

Gratitude Log Day 10

Gratitude Challenge: 
Give a Gratitude Tip 

I only saw the today's Gratitude Challenge after I return from home in the evening. Although I did receive some service today, I don't think I would have given a gratitude tip to anyone as tipping is not  necessary in my country for most of the services provided. So far, I think we would only give tips when we eat at some restaurants when we feel that the service provided by the waiting staff is very good by leaving the change as tips for the staff even though we would already have to pay for the service tax in the bill.  

The challenge would be quite difficult for me to complete but I will try to see if there is any way I could give the gratitude tip for the next few days and report it here. 

I would like to share this picture and hope it inspires some of you to start something like it with your family.  

For myself, I will improvise by putting some money  in a jar at home whenever someone did something for me to express my gratitude.  I think it would be a good way for me to find gratitude in my dealings with everyone I interact with daily.   I will decide later what I would do with the money collected and it would be interesting to see how much is the collection. 

The money in the jar is my gratitude to my hair-stylist for her service today. 

3 Things I am Grateful for Today.....

(i) a nice hair cut and a relaxing head massage. 

(ii) coffee which helped to keep me alert while driving.

(iii) my yoga practice today which reminds me to always be honest with myself and not to let my ego takeover. 

Daily Gratitude Log 9

Gratitude Challenge: 
Share Something You Are Grateful With Someone

Today's challenge on sharing something you are grateful with someone is a task that I have been doing since I discovered yoga in my life.  When I started practicing yoga, I  created my blog, "I am a Yoga Kaki" as I wanted to share my yoga journey and hope that it will inspire my readers to take up yoga.  I write about my yoga practice as well as share articles about yoga in my blog.   I have also set up a "I am a Yoga Kaki" page on Facebook where I share photos of inspiring yogis and whenever I find an article that is very inspiring, I will share it on my page.  

Social media has allowed me to share everything that is meaningful in my life as I am always sharing things, photos and events on Facebook and Instagram with my family and friends.

3 Things I am Grateful for Today...

and

Daily Gratitude Log 8

Gratitude Challenge: 
Transform An Ungrateful Thought 

Today's challenge is to reflect on any ungrateful thought that we might had and write about how we can transform this thought into a grateful thought. 

For this exercise, I can think of one incident that happened on Monday, which was when there was no internet connection in my office as the server was down for almost 2 hours.    As I was rushing to complete an assignment where I had to key-in information to a website and it has to completed by the end of the week, i was feeling very annoyed as without the internet connection, it meant that my work was at a standstill.  

When I  called  the staff in the IT Dept. to check on the situation and was informed that they were trying to restore the connection, I could feel that the staff who answered the phone was a bit frazzled as she must have  been receiving a lot of calls and complaints from many staff.    I realized that the IT staff were trying their best to resolve the matter as fast as possible but sometimes, it was beyond their control.   When there was no problem with the internet connection, nobody would praise them for a job well done but when something goes wrong, everyone would be breathing down their neck.  

At that time, rather than wait in frustration, I managed to catch up on my filing  and also started to work on writing the minutes of a meeting.    

Today, while reflecting on this, I know that I should be grateful that with the internet connection being down, I have actually managed to do some of my other work which have been left aside. 

3 Things I am Grateful for Today...

(i) mom feeling much better after the two acupuncture sessions. 

(ii) completing my assignment at work before the deadline. 

(iii) finding a parking space easily at the night market when I went to buy dinner for mom and myself tonight.

Daily Gratitude Log 7

Gratitude Challenge: 
Give Thanks to Yourself 

How time flies?  Today is already day 7 of the 14-day Gratitude Challenge.  Today's challenge is to give thanks to myself which is not an easy task to write about as Asians are quite shy about receiving compliments, what more, I now have to tell the world what I am grateful for about myself.  

However, I am grateful to be given this opportunity to write about the good things about me.   Firstly, I believe I am a good daughter as I have always put my family above everything else.  I am also a good friend as I don't give away confidences and will offer my help to the best of my ability.  I am kind and sincere and I believe that when I  helped others, I am also helping myself.  I believe in karma.."do good and be good".   I am always glad to share information with my friends and colleagues as I believe that "sharing is caring". 

I have learned to get out of my comfort zone, to take risks and go after what I want which has been inspired by the quote below.  

I am happy with my life and would not exchange it with anyone else as everyone has their own problems.  I have learned to laugh at myself and not to worry about things which might not happen and finally, I love myself for who I am. 

3 Things I am Grateful for Today....

(i)  that I joined this challenge as It has enable me to start writing again. 

(ii) that there were no problems in the internal audit check on my unit today. 

(iii) a hot meal for my dinner which was bought at a stall near my house. 

Daily Gratitude Log 6

Gratitude Challenge: 
Give Thanks for Your Life 

For today's challenge, I have to write a gratitude note where I give thanks to everyone/everything responsible for my life today. 

Firstly, I would like to give thanks to my parents, without them I would not be in this world.  I am grateful for their guidance and for always being there for me.    Although my dad has passed away, I know that he is up there watching over me.  

I am grateful for the people who I have met in my life especially people whom I have worked with.  Some of these people have given me the opportunity to show my capability by trusting me which has built my self-confidence and to take on challenging tasks without fear. 

I am also grateful to discover yoga in my life  and  I would like to share below a poem by John Martin where he has put into words how yoga has put a difference into my life. 

"Yoga has become such an important part of my life
Something I can turn to, to help erase the everyday strife

Practising in a class, of all shapes and sizes

Listening to a teacher who encourages, never criticizes

Standing in Tadasana with hands at Namaste

Each class starts, and for a brief time we stay

The asanas always flow gently, one after the other

The class is like a family, with the teacher the mother

Lying on our back or standing on our feet

The postures allow us, our inner soul to meet

Stretching up to the sky, or bending down to the earth

Brings forth a feeling of both personal peace and self worth

By the end of the class, the muscles are stretched and the mind still

And each student, for another session at least, has had their fill

So thanks go out to all the many teachers, present and past

Who have made sure the beauty of yoga will forever last."

Yoga has helped me to become more mindful and to learn to let go and accept things that I cannot change besides reaping the health benefits from my yoga practice. 

3 Things I am Grateful for Today....

(i)   for a wonderful yoga class with props with Delphine who was away for the past  month. 

(ii)  for the sunny weather today for drying all my clothes as it was raining the whole day yesterday.

(iii) for free parking outside the studio, I managed to save MYR5 for not having to park inside the building.