When my great friend and soul-sister Coral Brown, who is a psychologist, yoga teacher, and life-trainer, asked the question, “What have you been taking for granted lately?” to me and a class of virtual yoga students last Thanksgiving, it prompted me to reflect upon what I had been overlooking in my life.

At the time, I recognized that I had been taking my peace and my freedom for granted — two experiences that I still feel very privileged and lucky to have had during a year that was so awful, anxious, heartbreaking, stressful, disruptive, and disrupted for so many worldwide.

Today, I’d like to pass along Coral’s question to you.

The point in asking this question isn’t, however, about guilting ourselves, shaming ourselves, or making ourselves feel bad for what we’ve been taking for granted.

It’s all about illuminating what we have been appreciating lately… but, perhaps, haven’t consciously registered or storied as true and meaningful appreciations in our lives of late.

So, now that one-fourth of 2021(!) has already come to pass, let’s take a moment to look within and inquire…

“What have we been taking for granted so far in 2021?”

Name Your Top 3 ‘Appreciations’ for 2021

What have I been taking for granted so far in 2021, which, again, is another way to ask, what have I been appreciating lately — even if I haven’t really recognized it?

Here are the top three things that come to mind for me:

1) Health (and access to healthcare).

I had a strange, minor health blip in January and February that disrupted my running and exercise regimens, upon which I came to rely throughout 2020 as a form of stress-management and as practices in overall health and wellbeing.

Thankfully, I was able to quickly, easily, and affordably seek counsel from my doctor, and my ailment eventually resolved itself within a few weeks.

It’s always been easy for me to take my health — and, especially, my access to healthcare, which was always covered by my parents and our healthy finances — for granted.

As I get older (and therefore, less naive and ignorant as I realize I am not, in fact, invincible, just historically lucky and privileged), I never want to take my health, nor my access to healthcare, for granted.

2) Friends and friends and friends.

Despite how much I share about my life with you in an “open book” sort of fashion, I am quite a private person at my core, and I spend most of my days and weeks very contentedly on my own.

But the absence of connections to friends, especially in person, over last year did start to catch up with me this past winter.

I’ve been gradually, safely, incrementally reconnecting with local friends throughout Q1, and it has been giving me so much satisfaction, ease, contentment, and joy in my life: simple pleasures that speak volumes to the purpose and meaning of life, I believe, which is sharing life with others.

I am so grateful to be able to reconnect more and more with friends as we roll out vaccinations, and find more and more resolution to the most tumultuous months of the pandemic.

3) Limitless ideas, raw creativity, and unbridled imagination!

Seriously though, how cool is it to have the minds that we have?

Throughout Q1 of 2021, I’ve been generating new ideas for how to approach business, uncovering and rewriting personal stories and outdated beliefs, developing fresh prompt sets, and coming up with fun schemes and ways to support you and your self-storied life.

When I take a moment to reflect on the limitless nature of our minds, I’m extra grateful for the “computers” of our brains and how powerful they can be as generators of new insights, fresh ideas, raw creative possibility, and potentiality.

We are truly limitless in our imaginations.

And while I love accessing my creativity for my own ends (like running my business and writing to you), I also love being a catalyst of my clients’ limitless imaginations and supporting their businesses, creative ventures (like books and podcasts and YouTube channels), and much more.

Our first member-clients in Claim Your Calling™️, my new coaching collective and thought leadership incubator that debuted this February, has been percolating with this raw creativity, exciting creative projects that our members are plotting and launching, and so much more.

I feel so lucky and grateful to exist in proximity to others’ creative sparks, interests, passions, intentions, and dreams to uplift, share stories, and serve the world.

(If you’re interested in exploring Claim Your Calling™️, click here. We’re reopening to new members again this April, which means you can become a part of this creative community soon! More on this to follow.)

What Have You Been Taking for Granted?

Ultimately, the point of an exercise in which we reflect upon “what we’ve been taking for granted” isn’t to shame ourselves or to feel guilty for not being more appreciative.

This exercise is another way to say, “What have I been appreciating so much lately, even if I haven’t consciously registered the ‘story’ of those appreciations yet?”

In other words, when we ask ourselves, “What have we been taking for granted?”, we invite the opportunity to consciously realize what has mattered to us lately so that we can appreciate them more deliberately, if we so choose.

So, friend, what makes your list of appreciations?

What have you been “taking for granted”?

Might you consider prioritizing those “appreciations” further in the weeks and months ahead?

(Or, at the very least, honor them by recognizing how important they have been to you lately?)

And hey, if you could use some personal support to help you align or refine your outlook, practices, creative pursuits, or business journey as a small biz owner or creative entrepreneur? Claim Your Calling™️ may be for you.

My coaching collective blends 1:1 coaching support and guidance with me, every month, alongside two additional 90-minute group coaching experiences, every month, that our member-clients call “so uplifting,” “incredibly positive” and “energizing instead of depleting.”

We tap into our stories, uncover the shadows that may be holding us back, get clearer and clearer on our nearest needs and goals, and workshop new ideas, projects, and creative pursuits in safe, protected, supportive space together.

We’re accepting applications year-round, and we’ll officially re-open our community to new members this April (so, you’ll start coaching with us in May).

I’ll also be hosting a FREE Community Coaching event on April 15th so that you can experience group coaching, live, and gain some free insights, advice, and support from me. RSVP here.

Until next time, keep storying — and keep appreciating what you’ve been taking for granted!