"Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life."
- Rumi
Some days we have bad days. It's part of life. Sometimes life just isn't going our way. It happens. It can be easy to get sucked into a dark place where we feel like nothing is going our way and Murphy's law (whatever can go wrong, will go wrong) seems to be in full force. In times like these, expressing gratitude may seem counterintuitive, but it can also help get us out of any funk we are in by providing us with another perspective. It's easy for us to express gratitude when we are happy, but what about when we could use it most?
It can be tough to focus our attention on the things we are grateful for when life deals us multiple blows that can have us feeling down on ourselves and life in general. However, there is always something for us to be grateful for. Think about it. It's not like there is always something wrong in every area of our life. It's usually something going wrong here or there, or possibly in a few areas if things are really tough. When it comes to our health, our relationships, our careers, our finances, or even our basic needs, we can find the good somewhere in there. We just have to shift our focus.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Sometimes, it's all of the negative stuff going on that clouds the reasons to be appreciative for anything. We can get so worked up about what is not going right that we forget about the roof over our head or the support we have from family and friends. We forget about all of the reasons to smile because we can't seem to shake those unfortunate circumstances that want to occupy our minds. We can also be grateful when bad stuff happens since it can help us gain some perspective on what is most important to us. Also, unfortunate circumstances may be paving the way for something better to show up in our lives.
So, what are you grateful for today? What areas of your life are going well? What good news do you have to report? There is always something. The more we focus on the good and express gratitude for it all, the more our minds will gravitate toward the good stuff. That's where life's magic happens in the quantum field. If we shape our reality with our thoughts, they might as well be good ones. Now that is something to be truly grateful for!
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