What are you grateful for? | life flavored lemonade

Grateful:  Feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness; thankful

Thankful: Please and relieved; expressing gratitude and relief

Gratitude:  The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness

 

I often have family, friends, and acquaintances compliment me on how positive and optimistic I am.  I love getting these compliments! They put a smile on my face and make me happy!  Some ask "How do you do it?"  My answer is always the same "I do my best to see the good in everything, find the silver linings, and be positive about life."  You only get one life; you might as well enjoy it!

Of course, there are times when I have negative moments, moments of stress or sadness, of fear or anger.  But I do my best not to let them last long, because I believe in the Law of Attraction.

The Law of Attraction is the name given to the saying "like attracts like" which is the idea that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts a person brings positive or negative experiences into their life.

In order to attract positivity, you must first be positive.  Being positive and finding the good in every person and situation you encounter every day will bring positivity into your life.

In order to start attracting positivity into your life, you must first focus on the things you are grateful for.

I carry a small green rock in my pocket and every time I touch the rock I think about things in my life I am grateful for.  (I got this idea from watching The Secret.  If you haven't seen in, you need to!  It changed my life!) I also hold onto the rock and think of things that I want to accomplish or things that I want to gain in life.

By doing this, I put positive energy out in the universe to attract the tools and resources I need to accomplish my goals.  I've been carrying this rock around for about 5 years now.  It is a great little charm to use as a daily reminder to be grateful and positive because it's convenient to carry around.

I love telling people about my "gratitude rock".  Seeing their facial expressions as I explain to them what it means to me and why I carry it, is pretty awesome.  The reactions are always positive; most look surprised and enlightened.  It makes me happy feeling I've spread a little bit of my positivity to them.

"Gratitude requires awareness and effort – not only to feel it, but to express it." ~Bonnie D. Parkin

So, I ask you…What are you grateful for?  What do you appreciate in life?

Never thought about it before?  That's alright.  Start with something small…The cup of coffee you are drinking.  The socks on your feet.  The device you are using to read this blog post.

Whether they are little things or big things, you should be grateful for everything and everyone in your life.

"Yeah, but I'm not grateful for my loud neighbors who fight and keep me up at night!" Be grateful you aren't in an abusive relationship.

"Yeah, but I'm not grateful for the smelly guy I have to sit next to on the bus every morning!" Be grateful you have a place to take a shower every day.

Try writing down the things you are grateful for.  To help you out, here is a Daily Gratitude Printable you can print to help you get started.  Try writing 3 things you are grateful for and why.  Keep them and look back at them when you need to.

Every day I find more and more things and people in my life to be grateful for.  Once you start identifying things and people in your life to be grateful for, you will begin to see things in a more positive light.

Finding the positives in negative situations is not always an easy thing to do.  I have an exercise that I like to do that helps.  When in a negative situation or having negative thoughts, I try and look for 3 positive things.

For example, here is a negative situation: You are getting ready to leave the house for work at 7:05 am like you do every morning.  But this morning, you accidentally spill coffee on yourself.  You have to take a few extra minutes to change your clothes.  Now you're leaving the house at 7:11 am.  You're feeling frazzled about the whole situation as you back out of the driveway.  When you get to the end of your street, you realize that you have left your cell phone at home.  Thoughts of "MAN! What a horrible morning!" race through your mind.  You go back to the house, grab your cell phone and finally get on your way at 7:15 am.  When you get to the freeway, traffic is terrible!  Moments later, you discover there is a car accident causing the massive back up!  What a pain!  Your instant thought is "BAH! Why today?  Why this morning?  Why can't people learn to drive?  I need a do over on this morning!"

Well that is one way of looking at it.  I mean, how can you possibly find the positives in this situation?  You now have to call your team leader and let them know you are going to be late for work, all because you spilled coffee on yourself…

Let's look at it from a positive prospective:  Had you not spilled coffee on yourself, you may have been the one in the accident but because you were running late, you avoided it (positive #1).  Because you are in the car a little longer than usual, you may have had time to think of a brilliant idea to make process improvements at work (positive #2).  Maybe you decided to ditch the freeway and take the back roads to work because you just do not have the patience to sit in traffic and while taking the scenic route, you drove by a house for sale.  But not just any house, your dream house (positive #3)!

If you can't think of 3 positive things about a negative situation, just 1 will do. As long as it's positive, it's a step in the right direction!

"One small positive thought can change your whole day!" ~Author Unknown

If you have enjoyed this post, please share it so that others can enjoy it as well. And I hope you come back to enjoy another glass of Life Flavored Lemonade.

Cheers!