An attitude of gratitude


Imagine a world where everyone was always thankful.  Always grateful.  People genuinely believed their glass was always full let alone half full.  It’s certainly not the case in my experience recently, with friends or strangers.  With this continuing miserable weather, lingering illness and down right grumpy mood it’s a tough ask today to count my blessings.  But I will.  I will because I have many things for which to be thankful.  I will because it makes me stop to think.  I will because it changes my mood for the better.  In the insane busyness of life the best parts can often go unnoticed, or if not unnoticed unappreciated. 

Too often we catch ourselves thinking ‘I don’t have that’ or ‘I wish I could change that’ which is a mindset we can accept if we’re not careful since we’re constantly told to strive for better, strive for more and strive for perfection.  I know for sure I’ll not meet that stage in this life so it’s time I stopped trying!  I will learn to stand in the blessings I have, to count even the small and seemingly mundane.  Recently I made a ‘thankful’ jar which I put notes in of one, or many, things for which I am particularly grateful for on that day.  It had an amazingly positive effect on my mood.  Over the last few days however, I have neglected to take time to fill it and it’s strange that I have felt more irritable!  Of course there are often other contributing factors to my mood but it has made me so aware that I am the only one in control of how I’m feeling.  The other factors may well be things beyond my control but the one thing that’s always within my control is my reaction.  I can spend the day moaning about how this time last year I already had a lovely suntan, I can be in a bad mood because the person in front of me didn’t hold the door, I can be upset because I haven’t heard from a friend..... the list could go on.  The actions against me aren’t preventable but my moaning, bad mood and being upset are.  I will instead chose to marvel at the complexities of our bizarre weather system and snuggle under a blanket with a hot chocolate, I will chose to hold the door for the person behind me and I will chose to pray for the friend and hope they’re having a good day.  My choice is to smile.  My decision is to be positive (even if I have got 4 layers on!).  

What if you took 5 minutes to list all the things in your life that are great?  I expect you’d actually need longer!  So my challenge is going to be maintaining an attitude of gratitude, a heart of thankfulness and a hope that this positivity is infectious.  If I can impact someone else’s miserable day for the better, then I’ve spread just a tiny bit of joy.  The ripple effect is hugely powerful so let’s see how many people we can make smile!

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