Living A Life Of Gratitude: Gratitude Post for January, 2026

Good people in my life, Grateful feelings in my heart….

The New Year began with midnight mass – I was glad to have been in the church for the midnight service joining the community in thanksgiving for the year that was slipping by, and my heart was overwhelmed with gratitude; for so many thoughts were filling up my mind and I took a brief flight of all the 12 months that rolled away into eternity; my mind was racing with random moments and memories that I had collected in the year that has gone by, the persons who were there are no more in this year and here I am blessed to have entered this year along with my family and my community.

As we complete the first month of the year 2026 – I have a list of experiences to be grateful for; so here goes my list:

The New Year was a surprise as one of our friend wanted to be with us for the night service – and she came home, we were happy to have a guest at home, connecting after a long time, it was a quiet and the restful day to begin the year.

I am grateful that I worked this whole month – work kept me busy, as there was so much happening in the campus. I am glad for the students who visited the centre and all the services I could reach out to them in the best possible way.

I am grateful for the being part of the Women Empowerment Cell in the campus – and we had a new Principal joining the Science College. The first meeting we had to plan for the National Women’s Teacher’s Day on the occasion of 195^th birth anniversary of Smt. Savithribai Phule. I was busy attending the planning meetings and also took up some responsibilities – like finding the Resource person for this event.

I am grateful to Prof C Beena who is the Director in charge for our centre and she was kind enough to accept the invitation to speak on the life of Smt. Savithrbai Phule and also touch upon work life balance. As a teacher who taught cognitive psychology for 35 years in the university, she inspired and motivated all of us – I feel blessed for all these opportunities in my life as it’s learning from the senior professors.

This month our centre was the knowledge partner for another organization that wanted to collaborate with online training on Cognitive Behaviour Change – this was a 5 day workshop in the evening for around 2.5 hours. So I got busy as part developing content on cognitive load, emotional labor, learned helplessness in addictions and interpersonal relationships. This programme took a lot of time and I am grateful and glad to be part of it – prior to organizing this we were also provided training on understanding on all these topics and coordinating and working together was meaningful. I was managing both the centre as well as collaborating with the other organization.

This was a certificate course and I am grateful to be a participant as well as the Resource person. I am grateful to God for providing me with these opportunities of continuing education for myself.

I am grateful for the break I got for Sankranthi wherein the campus closed for two full days and in between there was a Saturday and Sunday – which gave me some time to rest and relax. The weather was extremely cold and I developed cough and severe cold, found difficult to breathe at nights – I kept myself warm, wore woolen sweater, and socks all day and night. By Gods grace I managed with Paracetamol, Dolo650 and citrizine. I also tried steaming, salt water gargle and took a lot of warm water and moved around wearing mask and stayed indoors. The holidays were a blessing and I took one extra day leave for rest.

Dorothy was busy with her regular work at college and she was extremely helpful to me, and took care of me – she took up the responsibility of buying the weekly vegetables, and she was always ready to help – despite the fact that she too was having cold and cough but managed it well, she was regular to college and kept herself busy with choir, academics and chilling out with her friends. I am grateful to have a daughter who is caring and sensitive; she is truly a blessing in my life.

I am grateful that this month we celebrated one of our friends birthday – which was on 31^st December. She was not available on that day, so we met in this month. I am glad that Arushi baked a cake for her and appreciate her thoughtfulness to make it healthy and delicious too with very less sugar in it so that all of us can enjoy. We had a great time together, enjoyed the dinner and also there was young girl who sang some lovely Hindi songs, Dorothy also joined and sang one song – it was a pleasant experience and I had a great time.

I am grateful that Dorothy tried to experiment with momos- she bought the chicken mince meat and tried the fried momos for the first time and served me and David. I was happy for her initiative for trying out something that she never did it before, learnt it watching the utube, and David was happy too.

I am grateful that I got to meet my younger sister in this month, she has not been well too due to the weather, and was stuck indoors with cough and chest congestion. She wanted to meet but as I too wasn’t feeling well, could not give her the time. I am glad that she healed and I am feeling much better too; so we decided to go out for lunch and spent some time with each other. It was refreshing to come out of the house not for work but just to hang out.

I am grateful that I got to watch some good movies on Net flick – I watched Veer Zara and liked it and wondered how I had missed this movie. I also watched HAQ a hindi movie, a must watch based on a real case of Shao Bano a socio political movie without falling into the category of propaganda, YamiGautam the heroine and Imraan hasmi the hero were brilliant in their roles, it was so intense and engaging – applaud the director and writer for their efforts in making it so impactful.

I watched a Telugu movie with my friend Indira in a theatre. It was a humor and light entertainment- Anaganaga Oka Raja- Navin Polisetty as the hero – I enjoyed watching as its been a long time since I stepped into a theatre, which is nearby to my residence.

I am grateful for an invitation from a Degree college to address The National Two Day Seminar on Strategies for Women Empowerment. I was asked to talk about women and domestic violence, to the faculty and their students. I am happy when I get these kind of opportunities as it makes me think and prepare and plan for the session. I was glad to address this and also take up questions with regards to this topic. It feels good to be acknowledged and appreciated and these moments motivate and inspire me to do better.

I am grateful for everything the roof on my head, the food on my table, people who love, those who care and assist me to make my life a little more comfortable, happier and less stressful. I am grateful for all the gifts that I keep receiving – the books that inspire and motivates me to keep reading, the desire to keep moving my body, filling my own cup with prayers, exercise, meditation, self affirmation and practicing mindfulness. I am grateful for all the people who affirm and appreciate me, pray for me and always encourage me.