What Are You Counting?

Today I am grateful for shade trees on hot days and for enough of a breeze to keep the bugs away. I am grateful for the women in the BC support group I attend, the connections we have made, and the laughter we share.

I am also grateful for what I have learned from practicing gratitude.

This was the quote for yesterday in my gratitude journal:

"Better to lose count while naming your blessings than to lose your blessings by counting your troubles."  (Maltbie Davenport Babcock)

I hadn't seen that quote before, but it hits on one of the best lessons I have learned from practicing gratitude. I can't be grateful and feel sorry for myself at the same time. I'm either in the solution or the problem. Which one do I choose?

From pen to paper in my journal, to typed words on a screen for this blog, to letters, A-Z lists, gratitude walks, and more; gratitude practice helps me count my blessings. When I pause and focus on what I have, what is going well, I "invent" fewer troubles. You know, the troubles we create when we get overly tired or overly busy, when we try to manage unmanageables.

Certainly, some troubles  are real and need to be addressed. Car issues. Tooth pain. Camp packing lists. But a grateful approach to each day tends to give me a better perspective and more energy to face the real troubles.

Counting blessings doesn't mean ignore your concerns, it means keep them in a healthier perspective.I would rather magnify blessings than troubles. Blessings open up the view. Troubles narrow the view.

We all have a choice today: blessings or troubles?

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