The Reward is the Journey: Keeping it simple. Living it Rich.

For me today, it really is the small things that make life worthwhile. This week I've had several reminders of what brings a smile to my heart and what lifts my heart and prompts my soul to sing (so to speak)...

Seeing a friend's number flash up on my phone as an incoming call when I most need to hear from someone who might ask me how I am and actually give a damn about my response to their question.

Having a handful of close friends is an immeasurable blessing. We are not intended to travel this journey alone.

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." Marcel Proust

Waking up to find that the sky is blue and the sun is making an appearance having been so shy of late and remembering there's only a month until the clocks go forward - Spring really is on the way!

The connection between meteorology and mood is well documented. Even without suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder our outlook and general sense of well being is subject to fluctuations determined by our environment, including the weather.

"Gratitude is when memory stored in the heart and not in the mind."

Lionel Hampton

Finishing anything - be it a bottle of shampoo, or a project I've been anxiously fretting about for days, weeks or months and only just made the deadline.

The combination of achieving something (even if we are left with an empty bottle) serves as a reminder of our vitality. It is reassuring; we are moving, changing, and growing.

Unpacking my shopping having been to the supermarket.

I doubt I will ever tire of grocery shopping. It represents, at a very basic level, self-care in action: As an adult, I am both capable of and responsible for looking after myself. I appreciate firstly the availability of food and the enormous variety I have living in London. (Cooking is an entirely different matter).

Getting into bed having made it that morning.
Being the creature of habit I am, I tend to make my bed in the same way each morning. Returning to it in the evening prompts me to take inventory of the time that has elapsed in between.

A nice cup of tea, just the way I like it.

Ah... Yes, I am so very British. Tea possesses magical qualities.

"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea."

Bernard-Paul Heroux

Ticking things off a to-do list (even when the only reason they appeared there in the first place, was to tick off, there being no chance of forgetting the particular item).

The search for measures of progress is innately human. In this respect, we all tend to like to know we are making headway, that we are moving, that things are changing and that we are agents in such change. I value a tangible reminder of this, and am rarely to be found without notebook in which a rolling (rather than endless) to-do list is to be found.

Meeting a new client for the first time and feeling an immediate 'fit' and believing I have something to offer that might be useful to them.

I consider the work I do to be nothing short of a privilege. The education and training I have undertaken have brought me into close alignment with my life's purpose, which I feel closely connected to. Coming into contact with fellow human beings in this capacity is an honour.

"Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."

G. K. Chesterton

"If you count all your assets you will always show a profit."

Robert Quillen

By acknowledging the simple pleasures, life instantly becomes richer. Pleasure is not only a real possibility, but one within easy reach. Abraham Lincoln was credited with saying that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Something about turning towards my actual experience, and tuning into the abundance that represents strikes a chord with his sentiment.

Beauty surrounds me, if I only pause to look. Without adopting rose tinted glasses, when I stop to really survey where I'm standing, I find it to be a far vibrant green than I imagined possible only on the other side of the fence.

"He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has."
Epictetus

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."

Thornton Wilder

Life is good. It's far from perfect, but by appreciating more accurately what it is that I have to be grateful for, I am apt not only to enjoy it more fully, but to crave far less that which I have yet to attain, obtain or achieve.