A few days ago we were talking with some friends about the reality of India. A mutual friend has been trying to adopt an Indian girl for more than six years because the bureaucracy and idiosyncrasies of the country have been delaying the procedures again and again. In the conversation, the news that increasingly appears in the international media regarding rapes and murders of girls and adolescents in India came up. I specifically remember the news of two teenagers who went out at night in search of a sufficiently secluded place to relieve themselves and were raped and hanged. The news commented that half of the population (almost 600 million people) does not have toilets and as a consequence is forced to use public roads. This puts women at constant risk of sexual abuse and rape. I remember that reading that news led me to reflect once again on the amount of things we have and do not value because we take them for granted. Things that we should be grateful for in our lives and yet are not usually part of our internal conversations, unlike so many recurring complaints that fill our discussions with friends, family or co-workers. Today I invite you to discover the importance of being grateful. And I say “being” to emphasize that it is a state that requires reflection, full attention, constant renewal, living here and now… It is about something more than “being” grateful. It’s about a choice, about how you choose to live your life. Since I read that news I do a daily mindfulness exercise throughout the day. I invite you to do it too. It is simply about getting out of the “autopilot” in which we often live, stopping living with our minds always in the past, what you said, what they did to you, or in the future, what is yet to come, the worries , the plans… and above all, leave the complaints behind, and become aware of the present moment in which you are focusing on everything you have, and for which you want to be grateful (and I say “you want”, because it is your choice). At night, before I go to sleep, I review those things and choose the three most important of the day. Even on the most complicated and hardest days I strive to find those three things, and thus I have become aware that there are always things to be grateful for. Do you want to try it? What are you waiting for to start? What can you lose? You can do the exercise today by beginning to become aware at every step of all the things, people, situations… that you enjoy and for which you want to be grateful. When you choose to “be” grateful you live life more fully, you focus on the positive and what you want, instead of what you don’t like, harms you and what you don’t want. You become the owner of your emotions and your life. Your perspective changes and with it what is around you changes. Do you want to choose how you feel today? Do you want to choose to be grateful? What prevents you? Start right now and don’t forget tonight, before going to sleep, to choose the 3 things you want to give thanks for today. I do want to say thank you: Thank you for being there reading this blog….