When Gratitude Isn’t Enough

Poem by Ann Bourmanne We wanna be grateful because we read everywhere that being grateful is what it takes to be happy. We name five things each day we feel we should be grateful for. But as we go through the motions of filling a page with items that should make us feel abundant, we can't stop feeling lacking, alone, unfulfilled and sad. But being grateful doesn't mean halfheartedly listing all the things we believe we should be grateful for, when all we wanna do, is vent, judge and cry. Being grateful needs us to go to that space of ugly, mad and sad. Because feeling grateful can never come from a place of pretend and make believe that all is well, when that is not how we really see where we are in life -- right there, right then. Being grateful needs us to courageously name all the things we are not genuinely happy about. Being grateful needs us to be honest with our selves, gently blowing a sense of relief through our veins, as we give up the charade of pushing ourselves to happy from a place of pretend okay. Because that honest place of seeing the ugly frees up the room and space to see the beauty, however counter-intuitive that might sound. Allowing us to go to that honest place, gives us the breathing space to lovingly see our selves, however counter-intuitive that might seem. Allowing us to go to that honest place gives us the groundedness to wholeheartedly see even the smallest thing that feeds our soul right now. Because gratitude is not about making a long list of things that actually don't speak to our soul, coming from a place of pretend happy chasing more happy. Gratitude is about letting our souls speak to us coming from a place of unconditionally unapologetically accepting where and who we are.

This is a poem in the Poetry for the Soul series, encouraging you to do your thing instead of living out everyone else's expectations and working hard to be flawlessly perfect. Because living their dream and abandoning yours is exhausting, unfulfilling and such a pity. You are so much more than you give yourself credit for. There's no need to hide what makes you YOU. We need your one-of-a-kind brilliance.