Five years ago, Liz Moran felt like her life fell apart a little bit. She was going through a breakup, had to move out of her apartment, and moved in with her mom. At the time, she was a preschool teacher doing some soul searching, trying to figure out if she wanted to keep teaching or go back to her other career in marketing. Looking for a way to restart her life, she decided to go back to school. But a month in, COVID happened and everything went online. It felt like one thing after another just cascaded. With all of those changes, she needed something grounding to reset her mindset. She kept going to Pinterest for ideas to stay positive because she did not want to go into a negative spiral.
That is when she found the Gratitude app. She committed to herself that the first thing in the morning, she was going to open the app, look at the affirmations, and find something she was grateful for. She decided she would do that every single day, even if it was just for five minutes. She slowly felt that it really helped ground her. She also started looking at the quote of the day. Five years later, she still uses the app as stated by her “because she loves it.” Every day she sends the quote to her family and friends to share some positivity, because she knows they might be going through something they do not want to share, or maybe they are just having a hard day. Once, when she got busy and forgot to do it for a little bit, one of her friends actually asked her what happened to the text messages and told her to keep sending them.
“We only have a little time on this earth, and the vibe we bring really changes the energy in the room”
~ Liz
As a preschool teacher for ten years, Liz had a big role in shaping the minds of the little ones. She knows they are like little sponges. If she brought a positive vibe and told them, “You look beautiful today,” or “Kiss your brain, you are so smart,” they would take that love home and share it with their families. She felt it is just as important to channel the right messages to your own brain because there is so much noise and negativity in the world. Working on your mindset constantly is like an exercise, just like exercising your physical body.
A lot has changed in five years. Liz figured out her career and transitioned into marketing. She also decided she was not going to close her heart to love, so she got on a dating app to keep trying. The partner she met and wrote her original story about five years ago is now her husband, and a year ago they had a baby.
“I’m not perfect. I’m a work in progress, but 95% of the time I try to do my gratitude ritual every day because it truly impacts how I start my morning.”
~ Liz
When she has a day where she forgets to do it, she feels like her day does not go the way she wishes it could. On the days she cannot think of much, she keeps it very simple. She writes that she is grateful for the bed she has, the home she has, or her healthy one-year-old baby. Even if it is raining outside, she tells herself she appreciates the rain, because in a couple of days it will probably be green and it nourishes the soil.
For Liz, being authentically honest means knowing that everybody goes through heartbreak, everybody goes through grief, and everybody goes through really hard times. You do not always have to be positive, because that is not life. But it is about how you get back up.
“It is really important to carve out time for gratitude despite whatever you may be going through. If gratitude will lead you back to feeling happier, just follow the gratitude path. Start your day with gratitude and try to be consistent with it. It will change the channel of whatever is happening in your life.”
~ Liz
Liz’s journey shows what it really looks like to pick up the pieces. When life feels like it is falling apart a little bit, we do not need to fake a smile or pretend the hard days are not hard. We just have to look at the bed we are resting in and feel glad it is there. We look at the rain and remember it will eventually turn the dirt green. Her story is a reminder that the words we choose to feed our minds on the inside eventually become the life we get to live on the outside.
Liz sent daily messages to check in on the people she loved. Share this story with a friend you want to check in on today, just to remind them they aren’t alone.
This is Liz’s story, told beautifully by her and curated in its truest form by me to share with you.
I would love to hear your story. Write to me at preeti@gratefulness.me ✨
Every story is a reminder that a grateful heart is a magnet for miracles.
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