Count your blessings, not your troubles
Today I am grateful for a good first day of school for my son and stepdaughter. I'm also grateful for the local writing group I attended last night. It feels good to honor my passion to write by spending time with others who share that passion.
Line 5 of "Ten Things to Always Remember..." is Count your blessings, not your troubles.
I used to be prone to focusing on the troubles. It made for a bleak outlook.
Gratitude never says it will help me avoid troubles, but it does say it will help keep those troubles from overwhelming me. Even focusing on just a couple of good things amidst challenging times can give me much-needed breathing space.
Gratitude doesn't protect me from life's challenges, it helps me keep them in perspective. Those challenges usually end up teaching me valuable lessons. I would miss those lessons if I was all caught up in self-pity.
What I focus on and give my energy to, in my thought life and elsewhere, are where my emotions stem from. I would rather they stem from a place of feeling blessed, not a place of feeling cursed.
Have a good day!
Line 5 of "Ten Things to Always Remember..." is Count your blessings, not your troubles.
I used to be prone to focusing on the troubles. It made for a bleak outlook.
Gratitude never says it will help me avoid troubles, but it does say it will help keep those troubles from overwhelming me. Even focusing on just a couple of good things amidst challenging times can give me much-needed breathing space.
Gratitude doesn't protect me from life's challenges, it helps me keep them in perspective. Those challenges usually end up teaching me valuable lessons. I would miss those lessons if I was all caught up in self-pity.
What I focus on and give my energy to, in my thought life and elsewhere, are where my emotions stem from. I would rather they stem from a place of feeling blessed, not a place of feeling cursed.
Have a good day!
Perspective is everything. I've been known to indulge in a good old fashioned pity party just to get the feelings out of my system but if it goes for longer than a few hours, I call upon a friend to slap me out of it. Gratitude is very important.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
AnneMarie
Yes indeed, pity parties need to have a time limit and it needs to be short. Gratitude, on the other hand, needs no limits.
ReplyDeleteThanks AnneMarie!