Count your many blessings

Human being as a species (IMO) are professional window shoppers

Give us a brand new smartphone, and the exact second we unbox it, our eyes are already darting toward whatever teaser trailer the tech giants have cooked up for next year. We are always downloading version 2.0 while complaining that the current version is lagging, even though all we’re doing is scrolling through memes at 10:00 PM. ( Guilty as charged !)

Why are we like this? I wonder… Evolution theory comes to mind. Our ancestors didn't survive by sitting under a banyan tree, sipping tea, and thinking, "Life is totally sorted." No, they survived by panicking that a tiger was lurking behind the next bush. Our brains are essentially hardwired like a hyperactive toddler hopped up on sugar always hunting for the next dopamine hit. The chase is where the thrill is; the moment we actually get what we wanted, our brain yawns, resets the baseline, and whispers, "Okay, cool. What’s next?"

It’s the Swades (movie) syndrome. Mohan Bhargava sits in his sleek NASA office surrounded by multi-million-dollar screens, chasing distant constellations, completely missing the rich, messy, beautiful reality sitting right in his own backyard. We spend half our lives staring at digital maps looking for greener pastures, entirely forgetting to water the patch of grass we're currently standing on.

Even when people actually catch the prize, the illusion shatters instantly. As Andre Agassi famously wrote in his memoir, Open,( a must read !) after clawing his way to the absolute peak of his profession:

“I did it: I am the number one tennis player on earth, and yet I feel empty.”

And this is where we miss the point entirely. We talk a lot about being content with "enough," but the truth is, most of us aren't just surviving we are swimming in abundance. Gratitude isn't just a polite little exercise in positive thinking; it’s a necessary life raft. Without it, we become like a greedy dragon sitting on a mountain of gold, entirely convinced we're broke because someone else has a shinier crown.

We need gratitude because human nature is aggressively designed to discount what we already own. If we don’t actively pause to appreciate the sheer volume of good stuff coming our way the safety, the warmth, the people, the absurd luxury of a quiet afternoon we end up trading actual treasures for cheap digital glitter.

I still fondly remember a simple hymn we used to sing in school:

Count your many blessings, name them one by one ,And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

There is a wonderful word for this concept in Hindi: shukar. It goes far beyond a polite "thanks." It’s a deep, soul-level acknowledgment of grace, a quiet recognition that you are already holding more than enough.

And when you truly lean into shukar, a profound, unshakeable peace follows. The frantic, exhausting noise in your head finally dials down. The constant, low-grade hum of anxiety am I doing enough, am I falling behind, is someone else winning? starts t melts away. You realize you don't need to outrun the entire universe to feel like you've arrived.

It’s found in the quiet comfort of a familiar routine, the simple joy of a cup of tea on a long day and the realization that your cup isn't just full it's overflowing.

So stop staring across the wall at someone else's lawn. You're standing right in the middle of a playground full of fruit-bearing trees go pick the fruit and be grateful, rather than drooling over lush green grass that’s probably just painted green anyway !!!! Sit down, take a breath, and look around at the massive, overwhelming abundance already sitting right in your lap.