Okay – now for today’s post:

We can all feel grateful when things are going well in our lives, but can we still be grateful and find the good in the seemingly not-so-good parts, too? That’s where the real soul searching comes in and the challenges begin to surface.

Here is an example to show how this can work:

Imagine that you are in a job you really can’t stand. You get up each morning and begrudgingly get ready for work and make yourself drive there – you know that the work itself isn’t your passion, the people you work with aren’t who you would normally choose to spend your days with, and this is certainly not the vision you had for your life. But you do it day in and day out because you have to pay your bills, right?
Sounds pretty hopeless, doesn’t it?

But… take this same situation and imagine seeing it through a lens of gratitude and positivity. Each morning when you wake up you express your gratitude for having a house to wake up in, a job to go to, the security of a paycheck, a car to drive you there. Then when you get there, you express your gratitude for knowing that working at this job brings clarity to you for your future. By seeing what you don’t want to do, you can be more clear about what you do want to do by contrast. And having this knowledge gets you one step closer to living the life you want to live. And that is something to be grateful for! And you can start empathizing with your coworkers and imagine that they might just be in the same boat you’re in – just biding their time and clarifying their vision until they find the courage to take the leap toward pursuing their own passion. And this will make them more relatable to you, which will make the days much more enjoyable.

Can you see the difference?
We choose how we react to every situation in our lives. 
And it doesn’t mean that we’re seeing through rose-colored lenses at every given moment, but it can make your life much easier if you begin to show your gratitude for everything around you – even the tough situations where gratitude doesn’t seem easy to find.

Take some time today and think of something that’s not going as well as you would like in your life (your job, relationship, health, emotional wellbeing, etc.). Write about the situation as specifically as you can. For the first part of the assignment, write about it without censoring yourself – gripe, whine, get it all out. Then in the second part, rewrite it through the lens of gratitude and appreciation. Write about all of the positive things that are happening in your life because of this situation. Keep in mind that you may have to dig really deep to come up with things you are grateful for. But I guarantee it will be worth it, you will feel better, and you will see the situation in a whole different light.

And wouldn’t that be great?