Dress: ASTR | Sunglasses: | Shoes: Steve Madden | Bag: Zara (similar version here)

Gratitude is, what I have found to be, a fundamental and essential principle necessary for a full and happy life.  Not only does force make you take a step back and view your life as a whole and truly value what is important to you, but it is also extremely difficult to draw the things that you are most grateful for into your mind’s eye and not feel a sense of contentment and happiness.  If you ever find yourself sinking into a moment on the brink of anger or disappointment, I challenge you to draw up a list of the things that you are most grateful for and focus on each one.  It will bring you instant calm and peace.  I try to reflect on this list on a daily basis.  It allows me to deepen my relationships with people and burst with pride and love for them too.  While you ponder what you are most grateful for in life, let me share the list of the 3 things I am most grateful for in mine.

The 3 Things I’m Most Grateful For

1. My Family

This may seem incredibly obvious, however, my family is everything to me.  If you follow me on Instagram (@arumlilea) you will know that my sister, Jasmine, is my best friend.  If you search “Jasmine” in the search bar on the right-hand side of my blog, you will see so many lovely posts that I’ve included her in.  My dad is honestly the most selfless person you could possibly meet and he has taught my sister and I so many beautiful life lessons, not in words, but by example and I don’t think I could ever express how grateful I am to have this angel in my life.  I truly describe him as an angel to anyone I meet because he has the purest soul one could ever come across.  There are not many people as selfless and loving as him.  I have never mentioned this on my blog before, but we actually lost my mom when Jasmine and I were children.  I was 11 and my sister was 6 at the time.  It was the single most devastating and sudden way to lose someone you love, let alone a mother, and a magnificent one at that.  Our family took a massive knock at losing our matriarch but my dad stepped up to the plate and became both our mom and our dad at once.  He has shown us was true love really means and we will be eternally grateful for just that.

2. My other half

Ryan, my partner in crime, my confidante, my rock.  Here is another piece of information that I’ve never shared on my blog before: on the one year anniversary of the two of us dating, when most people go out for an expensive dinner or pop open a bottle of bubbly, Ryan drove me to my first session at the stroke rehabilitation centre, absorbed my weight as I leaned on him for support as we walked in and sat with me the entire time.  Yip, my stroke happened 10 months into dating.  No one would have blamed him if he’d said this wasn’t what he signed up for and run for the door.  I know I wouldn’t have!  Together we’ve been through so many difficulties including, sadly, the loss of multiple family members.  Each time, we’ve supported one another and it has taken us to a deeper level in our treasured relationship.  When he’s not doing ward rounds in the hospital or playing pro-league basketball, he helps me a ton with my blog too.  He’s forever making me laugh and there’s nothing better than climbing into bed absolutely exhausted at the end of each day and bursting into laughter together.  He’s a real treasure in my life.  Here’s a little fun fact about him: whenever we travel together, he takes a backpack purely for all the excess junk I insist on carrying with me, lol!

3. My Health

As I mentioned above, we had absolutely no way of knowing that I’d make a full recovery at the time that I suffered my stroke (read more about that here and here).  Today a talk without a lisp, I walk without a limp, I have full cognitive function and unless I told you that I’d had a stroke, you would have no reason to believe that I have had one.  My full recovery makes me want to fall on my knees and thank God every single day.  Whenever I go to the gym and start jogging on the treadmill, I say countless silent prayers of gratitude that I am able to do so.  Whenever I open a book, I’m so grateful that I have the ability to read.  Whenever I get slightly stressed about work, I remind myself to be grateful for being able to do so.

During the month of February, I have dedicated a page in my bullet journal to all the things that I am grateful for in my life so that I can have them all beautifully laid out in front of me whenever I want to browse through them.  Up until now, they’ve just been a mental note but I have to say that I really like having put pen to paper and written them out.  It is also really good to have them in my bullet journal because I actually have to page past them before I get to my task list for the day so I am constantly being reminded of them.  An attitude of gratitude is an incredible thing to have and it is something we can all work on.  If you’d like to read more about my reasons for living a life filled with gratitude, you can do so here.  I hope you enjoyed the list of the 3 things I’m most grateful for.  Let me know what you’re most grateful for in life in the comment section down below.