Count Your Blessings

When I was small, my lovely Nan would say to me 'Count your blessings' and I didn't really understand why until now.

When I wake up in the morning, usually I am exhausted. My tinnitus and hyperacusis keeps me awake most of the night. It takes about 2 hours to get off to sleep and then a random noise like the fridge or central heating might kick in and that triggers my hyperacusis to an extent that it wakes me.

When it's time to get up in the morning, some days it feels as though I have only just that minute gotten to sleep. I can feel my whole body is grumpy and this feeds  my mind as if it is being filled with negative energy. It's not a great start to the day.

So I have found a way to remedy this and it is quite simply by taking my Nan's advice and counting my blessings.

First I lay flat on my back and spread my body like a star fish in the bed. I count my blessings that I have such a lovely bed and that my body is able to stretch.

I give thanks for being warm and snuggled in. I look around my lovely bedroom and I give thanks that this beautiful cottage is my home.

Then I open the blind and look out at the tremendous view from our bedroom across the fields and hills. I give thanks for how lucky I am to wake up to this incredible gift from nature.

I pop my hearing aid in and straight away I can hear the birds singing. I sit on the side of the bed and give thanks for their tuneful welcome.

Then Maisy will come in, wagging her tail and I give her a cuddle, putting my face into her fur and I can't believe how lucky I am to have such a lovely furry friend in my life.

Jeff gets up before me and he will hear me counting my blessings upstairs and so brings me up a hot cup of tea and this is the biggest blessing of all. Not the tea, but that I have in my life a man that I have loved for 30 years ; my best friend, my soul mate through the good and the bad.

It's time to get up and dressed now ... what I find is that counting my blessings puts me in a lovely frame of mind that stays with me. I find myself counting blessings all day without even trying.

When it comes to bedtime, I take out my hearing aids and I lay in the darkness swamped by tinnitus, unable to sleep. This is the perfect time to count my blessings. To run through my day and wonder at how the most simple of things can give such deep joy.

I hope that this helps you; if you find yourself waking up, down in the dumps, maybe give it a try.