What If You Didn't Need to Change a Thing?
- Yvette Smit
- Feb 11, 2025
- 2 min read
How often does your mind jump to what’s wrong, what’s missing, or what could be better—before pausing to take in what’s already meaningful or good?
Welcome back—I'm glad you’re joining me again. Today, we turn our attention to something quiet yet powerful: the often neglected art of appreciation.
Our minds are wired to solve problems, which means they often keep us focused on what’s wrong, what’s missing, or what might go wrong next. We ruminate over past mistakes, or leap ahead in worry about the future. And while this is a very human tendency, it can cause us to miss the subtle beauty and meaning of the present moment.
Appreciation is an intentional practice of shifting our focus. It’s not about ignoring pain or pretending everything is fine—it’s about widening our perspective to also include what is working, what is meaningful, and what is enough.
When we tap into this sense of appreciation, it softens the inner pressure to always be better, do more, or fix something. Instead, we begin to feel more grounded in the now. This shift also affects how we view ourselves. In a world that constantly invites us to measure our worth against others, it’s easy to internalise the idea that our lives should look a certain way. But when we reconnect with our own story—our real, messy, meaningful life—we stop striving to match someone else’s highlight reel. We begin to value what we’ve lived, what we’ve learned, and how far we’ve come, even if that journey looks different from the one we imagined.
Take a moment to reflect:
What if your relationships didn’t need to change for you to appreciate them?
What if your life, with all its twists and turns, was already worthy of gratitude?
What becomes possible when you stop chasing what isn’t meant for you, and start noticing what is?
If this resonates with you, you're welcome to reach out. You may just find that a fresh perspective can open the door to unexpected insight.