The last months were quite a challenge for every person on this planet. Still, there is so much beauty around us and May makes it easy to remember the best reasons for being grateful in life. Here are my 10 top reasons for smiling, today. Would love to read yours in the comments section.

My 10 Reasons For Being Grateful

1. My health. The more you appreciate the value and importance of your well-being, the more you’ll prioritize it.
2. My other half. It could be your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, or just an awesome partner in life. These precious relationships boost our mental well-being.
3. My creative time. The moments where you can express your creativity without watching the clock.
4. My alone time. Taking breaks and spending time alone are some of the best moments during a day. Hearing your own breath and heartbeat can be really refreshing.
5. My friends. The people you have chosen to share the journey in life bring light and joy into your soul.
6. Being understood. Feeling you belong to a circle of trust, understanding, love, safety while growing to meet the challenges of life.
7. Eating under your own roof. Having your own safe nest, clean water, delicious food on the table, shared with your family is incomparable a unique feeling.
8. Exploring something new. That amazing feeling of discovering something new for the first time keeps your spirit young. Feeling like a young child amazed by the miracles of life gives happiness a new meaning.
9. The feeling you get after a long walk. Walking in the woods or by the sea is so refreshing. Every single time!
10. Music, books, art, dancing, crafting, swimming. All these activities had been the reason behind my high energy. And my optimism. And my smile.

Life Can Be Difficult

For sure, my life was never easy. Let me share my bitter sweet story about my disability. Everything started 20 years ago but an innocent question, from a colleague, triggered the decision to share my life story.

My disability to walk never stopped me to do anything in life, but society did on several occasions. We are living in a world where not being young and healthy are punished as the ultimate faults and sins.

A disability is any kind of condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do a variety of activities or interact with the world. There are a plethora of conditions that make a person unable to live a normal life. Also, a lot of disabilities are not obvious and society tends to treat people with special needs with a well-behaved discomfort.

That’s the painful truth. Nobody wants or wishes to be a disabled person. Unfortunately, although most countries are doing their very best to establish better living conditions for the majority of disabled people, the society and communities around them are not always open-minded or respectful towards them.

Let’s take my case as an example. Only my close family members and friends know that I have a severe disability both in my arms and legs. The last 20 years had been a living hell due to tremendous pain in the bones and joints. Every morning, my days start with a certain set of exercises just to make my joints function. For every step I take, the pain is killing my brain little by little. On the good days I can walk without the help of my cane, but on the bad days … let’s say that I have the time to read all the new books that are published each year, lying in my chair or my bed.

You may wonder, why I share this personal story today. Because it was about time to unveil my bittersweet story about my disability. Everything started 20 years ago but an innocent question, from a colleague, triggered the decision to share my life story. Read the full story in this article: People With Disabilities, The Unseen Everyday Heroes.