For Stella, gratitude was never simple or decorative. It was always grounded in truth. It was never about pretending that life is beautiful all the time or forcing positivity onto real pain. In fact, some of the deepest appreciation she ever felt was born in the middle of survival phases. She found it while she was going through challenges, loneliness, uncertainty, and instability, trying to rebuild her life from the ground up.
Stella notes that people often misunderstand what being thankful is in its real essence. They imagine it as constant happiness, comfort, success, or having everything figured out. But she experienced a different truth. She learned that gratitude can exist alongside grief and struggle. Sometimes, this feeling is simply waking up one day and realizing you are no longer the same person who once thought you would not be able to survive.
“I have learned to feel deeply thankful for every small thing that people often overlook, like freedom after being controlled, or peace after chaos, or safety after feeling fear.”
~ Stella
She began strengthening her ability to choose herself after years of abandoning herself just to exist and get through those challenges. She learned to feel thankful for small moments, like having a calm morning and not rushing before work. Being able to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea is a real luxury in life. She found solace in looking at the ocean while going for a walk, enjoying nature in the park, and receiving unexpected help when she needed it most. Random kindness from other people, meaningful conversations, and the simple ability to keep going became her focus.
Writing played a huge part in this journey. In early 2025, she started using the Gratitude app. Instead of bottling up her emotions, she chose a creative outlet, writing journal entries every night before bed. She wrote down her thoughts, ideas, and reflections around lived experiences. Whenever ideas came to her, she quickly jotted them down on her phone so she would not lose them.
“I realized I can really write, and I can write very creatively. All of that realization came from that little habit of journaling.”
~ Stella
This daily practice led to something much bigger. After a few months of consistently journaling, she ended up writing and publishing a memoir. She later started writing creative blogs publicly, while continuing to write personal entries on the app just for herself. Writing gave her a place to process and redirect her emotions. It allowed her to transform all of her lived experiences into something meaningful instead of letting the pain consume her. Through storytelling and reflection, she reconnected with herself and reclaimed her own voice.
Through journaling, Stella not only practiced gratitude, but she also discovered her love for writing. Expressing her thoughts is what helped shape her belief that appreciating life does not mean denying suffering. For her, true gratitude is much more human than that. It means learning how to hold your grief, your challenges, and the stresses of life, along with the beauty and value of life, in the same hands. They can coexist. This routine of reflection taught her that life can wound you and be unfair, but you can still intentionally hold space for hope, meaning, softness, creativity, and connection.
“Being grateful is not about perfection or just toxic positivity. It is more grounded in real positivity, the real truth of life and happiness.”
~ Stella
She believes that even in the midst of pain and struggle, you can still find and create moments of appreciation. It can be as simple as acknowledging you have a roof over your head, you woke up today, you are breathing, you are safe, and no one is attacking you. Finding those little comforts is the real essence of being thankful. She views gratitude as something without a single, rigid definition. What it means to her might be slightly different from what it means to someone else, and both truths can coexist based on individual experiences. It could just be experiencing a simple view from your window or balcony every morning. By channeling those feelings and writing them down creatively, it becomes a memory you can look back on for motivation and inspiration whenever you need it.
Her perspective about finding the good removes the pressure to be flawless. It reminds us that moving forward does not require fixing every problem immediately. We can feel entirely exhausted or completely unsure of tomorrow, yet still find relief in a warm meal or a quiet afternoon breeze. Her path shows that accepting the present reality, without filtering out the bad days, is exactly what helps us get to tomorrow.
This is Stella’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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