Life isn’t easy. In the not so distant past, I often found myself pissed off with my lot in life. Why did I have to commute for over 2 hours a day to earn a wage that didn’t even allow me to buy a shoebox somewhere? Why was it always raining? Why is everything always so hectic?

That was before I gradually discovered that how we experience life is all down to us. It’s all about perception. We can’t always control the things around us and we certainly can’t change the way other people think and behave.  What we can do is affect the way we perceive things, and in doing so, the world around us is transformed beyond recognition.

But how to begin to shift my perception?  I began with gratitude. In 2006, I boarded a plane to Uganda. Not knowing how long I would be gone for or where my journey would lead to, I head out to volunteer for a small local organisation called TASAAGA. I headed out to Jaana island to work with people living with HIV. Jaana is situated 3 hours from the mainland on Lake Victoria. Around 3000 people live there and there’s no access to clean water or electricity, not a single dr or concrete building on an island with a 37% HIV infection rate and not a single vehicle.

The experiences I had here are worthy of another blog post but what struck me the most while here, was not the usual narrative of poverty, starvation and sickness but the amazing positivity and resilience of the inhabitants. Despite experiencing deep injustice, crippling disease, devastating abuse and unimaginable poverty, people were finding a way to celebrate life. Quite naturally, they practised gratitude. They found joy in the birth of a child, the basic meal they shared with a friend, the best of the drums, a glorious sunset.

I decided to practice this for myself. Every morning, I began to take note of the things I could be grateful for. At first it took effort. Now the process is automatic. As I rise I find myself thanking the universe for all the things I’m blessed with-a loving family, a fulfilling job, inspiring friends, a warm bed, the ability to walk and dance (something I no longer take for granted having a mother who isn’t lucky enough to be able to do either of these things).

It’s hard to convey quite what a transformative effect this had on my live. An inner peace started developing deep within me. I became more compassionate and open, calmer, happier and started feeling more alive. The amazing thing is that it seems our happiness is directly proportional to how much we move away from obsessive self cherishing towards thinking that others are more important than ourselves. Gratitude is a catalyst to this process.

This TED talk by Timber Hawkeye of Buddhist Bootcamp expands on this concept in a deeply inspiring and emotive way.

Sometimes it’s so easy to forget that what we take for granted will be another person’s deepest desires. Sure, we all have problems. Life’s a bitch sometimes, but in shifting our perspective from what’s wrong in our lives to what’s right in them, a seismic shift in our perception takes place which leaves us happier, healthier and generally nicer people to be around. I for one, am never shifting back.