On Gratitude
With Thanksgiving around the corner, I wanted to share a little pro tip with you guys that’s had a major impact on the quality of my life, in the hopes it might do the same for you. Since a lot of my life in the past few years has been about taking risks or barreling into the unknown, stress (and how to combat it) has been a running theme. So finding ways to manage these negative feelings has become a sort of hobby of mine.
Enter: Gratitude. This is a bit of a secret weapon. When you consistently recognize anxious thoughts and redirect toward what you’re grateful for, your mindset inevitably changes. I certainly didn’t discover this, plenty of successful and influential people have been saying this for ages. Just like learning a language, the more you use it, the better you get. And then you really start to feel the difference. Where you are in life exactly right now, is a fleeting moment, and soon enough you’ll be onto something else. So being able to feel happy and enjoy the current snapshot is too often a missed opportunity.
Whenever my mind starts drifting to the dark side of challenges - like mom guilt, stress about hiring the right people, cultural frustrations, production mayhem - I bring it back to the above. It manages to derail the stress and also magically makes me feel like I have more time.A little sampling of what fills my gratefulness bucket? I’m thankful for my team and the people I work with. Granted I picked most of them, but getting to be surrounded by people I genuinely enjoy and admire is a small luxury. I’m grateful for the shift over the past few years in the quality of my problems. For being a wife and mom, and how small, sometimes painful daily challenges have molded me into a more complete human being with a wider skillset. And for the opportunity to have an impact, because ever since I was little I wanted to change the world. Now as a grown up, I’m grateful for the stress of growing our business because it means we’re able to do more good for more people. And I’m also grateful also for living here in Peru. Making a life in a foreign country is a bit like being on a permanent vacation and being a student for life.
At The Endery it goes without saying that we’re grateful for YOU, grateful you’re here and grateful to have you as partners in this sustainability journey, where together we can fight disposable fashion and wear something with true meaning.Wherever you are in your life journey, never forget to celebrate the victories, however big or small. This Thanksgiving holiday we hope you’re able to bask in all the things you’re grateful for, like a little pig in the most epic mud puddle, and that you can harness those feelings and come back to them whenever you feel overwhelmed.