Perhaps the surest way to happiness and fulfillment in life is to thank and praise your Source for everything that happens to you. Then, even when a calamity arises, you can be assured that you’ll turn it into a blessing.

- Wayne Dyer from The Power of Intention Perpetual Calendar

This was on my calendar yesterday and how true it is!

I know I personally tend to forget it from time to time - especially during intensely stressful times. Yes, even I momentarily forget to be grateful!

It’s at those times that I

sit back and focus on taking my own advice (which isn’t always easy to do!)

It’s almost always easier to jump on the boo hoo bandwagon and let the blame, justification and entitlement fly!

• Do you somehow feel you’re entitled to wallow in your pity when something bad happens to you?
• Do you feel the need to tell others how bad you’ve got it?
• Do you scoff at anyone that tells you to look at the bright side? (possibly want to rip their hair out for even suggesting such a thing? Oops, that’s just me during PMS weeks hehehe)

Then guess what, baby?

As relieved as you may feel temporarily by throwing your pity party and allowing others to join your wallowfest, you’ve just initiated the creation of more of the junk in your life to be whining about!

Enter Gratitude

When you’re engaged in your private pity party, it’s hard to break the cycle and even thinkabout a bright side, let alone see it!

Yes, I understand that issue, and even the most positive people can find themselves pulled into that rut. It happens to the best of us.

The key is to interrupt the cycle. Break the chain, so to speak.

Make a conscious decision to find just one small thing in your life that you’re truly grateful for and start there. Focus on that one thing, and pretty soon, you’ll find another, and another, etc…

Pretty soon, your mood will lighten and the stress doesn’t seem quite so unbearable.

No matter how bleak your situation may seem, there’s always something that you can find to focus your gratitude upon.

I find my gratitude in stressful times in the simple things such as:

• A beautiful sunrise
• The smile on one of my children’s faces
• A good cup of coffee
• Our dog’s unconditional love and the joy she gets from being around us
• The gorgeous view from our back porch
• My ability to walk, talk, see, smell, hear, taste, etc…

And the list could go on and on…

Suddenly, I somehow start to feel better…

Ignoring the Obvious

I’ve sometimes got wrapped up in “yeah but-itis” and my list tends to read, “blah, blah, blah, who cares.” It’s at those times I think about how many millions of people would give anything to have it as good as I do.

And I take it for granted…

Are you guilty as well? My guess is that you probably aren’t immune to ignoring how great you really do have it.

It’s easy to overlook the simple things that you find yourself lost without (ever been without electricity or water for a day?)

My point here is to keep you focusing on the bright side. The proverbial full cup.

In the long run, the choice is yours. You can choose to look at all the misery, pain and suffering you may have been engulfed by, or you can choose to focus on what is truly great with your life…

Either way you choose, keep this in mind:

Whatever you’re thinking about, with feeling, either good or bad, will bring more of the same flooding right to you, in greater abundance, so choose your thoughts wisely!