Wellbeing

Thanks to the million people who made my brunch

A little gratitude goes a long way

It’s easy to take life for granted, to miss the positives while focusing on the negatives. Being ADHD and perfectionist by nature, we tend to fixate on our problems and anxieties. Unfortunately negative emotions are stimulating, so are easy to focus upon. The science is very clear however, that being grateful goes a long way towards profound shifts to a happier frame of mind.

Gratitude short practices, like the three blessings can make as significant difference to mood as an anti-depressant. The key is in noticing and that takes practise. To become skilled at gratitude, we must consciously seek out the positives in our lives. As we do so, the easier and more automatic it becomes. The more we notice the positive in our lives, the happier we feel.

Sometimes it just takes noticing the amazing world around us to help us feel happier

Grateful for a wonderful brunch

This photo is of a brunch that I enjoyed in San Francisco, on last summer’s very special road-trip across California, with my daughter. It was a great brunch, served in lovely surroundings. I was and am truly grateful for that experience. But I can extend the gratitude further, not just consider the obvious. Let me make some ADHD connections…

Spanish tortilla with bacon and salad

was served by a couple of friendly waiters, had my food cooked by several kitchen staff that I could not see. Thank you to the cooks and the plate washing staff too. On my plate were eggs, potatoes, bacon, salad, dressings. Each item will have had a distinct journey to my plate. Many of the items travelled hundreds or even thousands of miles to reach me.

Who grew my lettuce leaf?

Drivers will have brought the goods to the restaurant from stores, and to the warehouses from farms. Hundreds of people will have worked in these stores, packing, cleaning, chopping, shelving, selling, marketing the items now in front of me. Someone had to produce the goods before that: the farms where the chickens and pigs were raised and where the salad leaves were grown. How many hundreds of people were involved in the farming and distribution of the many farmed foods on my plate?

They built it for me

Extend it further, to the refining of the petro-chemicals for the vehicles, fertilisers, plastics and electricity. How many people were involved in providing energy to grow and protect the crops and animals. The water for the fields, was brought to the farm by the workers building pipelines, pumps, dams and the cleaning equipment to grow my humble lettuce leaf. Buildings were constructed to house hens to lay my eggs. How many laborers were involved in digging materials from the ground to produce the cement footings. How many factory workers were involved in producing the metal girders to hold up the roof?

Exotic ingredients

We haven’t yet considered the balsamic vinegar shipped from Italy, the olive oil from Greece and the walnuts that came from somewhere? How many truck and boat drivers worked to bring me a dash of sweet vinegar? Someone had to first built the roads and traffic lights they drove past. Someone dug up clays, metals and earth, someone baked and processed them into my plate, cup, glass and cutlery. How many people did it take to make my relatively comfortable seat? I am not sure where this ends?

Thanks to a world-wide network of global collaboration

These people who contributed to my meal don’t know me, some will have passed away a long time ago. It is truly astonishing that all these thousands of farmers, drivers, waiters, engineers, cooks and road builders are part of an amazing global network of human collaboration, that worked together, (mostly unknowingly), to provide me my breakfast. So many humans working together helping me, nd you too, to live and enjoy our lives.

I am profoundly grateful to over 1,00,000 people involved in serving me that perfect brunch. It really helped make a truly special day. Thank you all.

Gratefull living — On gratefully, borrowed Google bikes, later that day!

Andrew Lewis

Andrew Lewis is an ADHD Coach, writer and founder of SimplyWellbeing. He has over 10,000 hours and 15 years of experience in coaching hundreds of ADHD executives, business professionals and creatives, and previously running a large ADHD support group and an ADHD diagnostic clinic. His business expertise comes from a twenty years career in software, from programming, through marketing, sales and running a few start-ups. His ADHD insight is personal, with decades understanding his own ADHD experience and in bringing up his ADHD daughter. He has published his writing primarily via this website, with interactive ADHD courses in development.