A dear friend recently gave me some fantastic relationship advice that is SO beautifully simple, but it had just never occurred to me until she said it…

““Purposefully replace annoyance with gratitude.””

Whoa, right? Like, why didn’t I think of that?

When you are spending a lifetime with someone, doing the daily ups and downs together, it is so easy to get annoyed over the smallest things. Maybe your cleaning habits are different (I’m the messy one, oops!), or one of you isn’t a morning person (*raises hand*), or you get distracted by your phone at dinner (we are both the culprit here), or they forget an important date (ok, this hasn’t happened yet, but I’m sure it will because #life). 

But in the grand scheme of a life adventure together, these are such teeny tiny things. And by recognizing your annoyance and then consciously choosing to be grateful for something specific about the other person instead, it diffuses the negative reactions that come so quickly and easily and replaces them with the positive, life-affirming emotions that come along with gratitude. 

The Huffington Post even created an infographic detailing all the ways gratitude can actually make you healthier: 

Um, yes please to alllll of that! 🙌🏻

So today, just try this idea once. When you feel the annoyance creep up on you, pause for a moment, think of anything you are grateful for about your person, and let those feelings of gratitude take root.

Happy Friday, friends!! <3