Develop an ‘Attitude of Gratitude’
By Bonnie Hassan
As we move into 2011, many of us think about the changes we’d like to make in our lives in the upcoming year. Some of us made New Year’s resolutions, and many more of us passed on this tradition because we knew from past experiences that we just don’t keep them, no matter how much we’d like to, no matter how much we promise ourselves that this time will be different.
I’d like to invite you to move into the new year in a different way, by adopting an ‘attitude of gratitude’ at the beginning and end of each day. Angeles Arrien, a cultural anthropologist, author and educator, says this about the power of gratitude:
“The practice of offering gratitude bestows many benefits. It dissolves negative feelings. Anger, arrogance, and jealousy melt in its embrace. Fear and defensiveness dissolve. Gratitude diminishes barriers to love and evokes happiness, which is itself a powerfully healing and beneficial emotion. It establishes a foundation for the challenging work of forgiveness in relationships when we have experienced betrayal, loss, broken promises, deceptions and disappointments. Gratitude keeps alive what has meaning for us and fosters our capacity to apologize and forgive.”
2011 will bring changes to all of us. That is a certainty, because change is a constant and is needed if we are to grow and evolve. Some of those changes will be immediately positive and easily recognized as such, and others will present themselves as challenges that may seem to suck the life right out of us.
If I’ve learned anything in my journey in this lifetime it’s that there is always a blessing, gift or opportunity presented in every challenge, if I’m willing to look for it. Sometimes those are easily discernable, but most times I have to look deeply within myself at the changes that have occurred within and around me as a result of that challenge, to be able to see the positive outcome that the challenge provided. And yes, I’ll admit that sometimes I’m unable to see the positive because I’m so caught up in the ’suckiness’ of the moment. It’s only as time passes and I look back and see where that challenge took me, that I’m able to recognize the blessing, gift or opportunity. But each time I look, I can see the positives that were generated by the challenge.
And so I start each day with a prayer of gratitude for all that the Universe will bring to me that day, trusting that each encounter, each experience, each moment, offers me an opportunity to grow, to evolve, to live, in an even bigger, more positive way. And each evening, just before sleep, I spend a few moments looking back over the day’s events to find the blessings, gifts and opportunities that have been given to me in the experiences that have come to me. I offer up a brief prayer of gratitude for each of them, and begin my night’s sleep with positive thoughts and a positive outlook, knowing and trusting that on some level, in some way, I have been blessed, and I am grateful. I know that like attracts like, and what I send out will come back to me. So I choose, very deliberately, to put out good energy so that good will come back.
Gratitude opens the door to love - loving yourself and loving others. Express your gratitude to the Universe for all that it brings to you each day, and to all who have contributed to the life that you have, because when that door opens, miraculous changes can occur in ways beyond your imagination and expectations.
