Attitude or Circumstance?
Today I am grateful for my husband Darcy and the many ways he understands and supports me. I am also grateful for some well-timed meditation and reflection time yesterday.
Today's quote in my gratitude journal is:
"Thankfulness is much more dependent on attitude than circumstance. When you feel the lack of what you don't have, thank God for what you do have." (Jim Stephens)
I would answer the question posed in my blog title with a resounding "attitude!" Our perception of ourselves and the world around us is, I believe, very much shaped by our attitude about it all. My perspective is not chosen for me. I get to choose it. Certainly, circumstances impact my attitude, but they don't drive it. If I am driven only by circumstances, I feel like a victim and I stay stuck in the problem. If I am more driven by an attitude of gratitude, I tend to get unstuck and have energy to focus on solution work.
I admit that I have tried long and hard to control things that I can't, but recovery from alcoholism has taught me and experience shows me that there are two things I CAN control-my attitude and actions.That's where I put my energy and efforts.
It reminds me also of this quote by Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist:
"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances." (from his book Man's Search for Meaning)
Frankl's words never cease to amaze me. I do indeed have the freedom to choose my attitude today.
What will it be? What will yours be?
Today's quote in my gratitude journal is:
"Thankfulness is much more dependent on attitude than circumstance. When you feel the lack of what you don't have, thank God for what you do have." (Jim Stephens)
I would answer the question posed in my blog title with a resounding "attitude!" Our perception of ourselves and the world around us is, I believe, very much shaped by our attitude about it all. My perspective is not chosen for me. I get to choose it. Certainly, circumstances impact my attitude, but they don't drive it. If I am driven only by circumstances, I feel like a victim and I stay stuck in the problem. If I am more driven by an attitude of gratitude, I tend to get unstuck and have energy to focus on solution work.
I admit that I have tried long and hard to control things that I can't, but recovery from alcoholism has taught me and experience shows me that there are two things I CAN control-my attitude and actions.That's where I put my energy and efforts.
It reminds me also of this quote by Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist:
"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances." (from his book Man's Search for Meaning)
Frankl's words never cease to amaze me. I do indeed have the freedom to choose my attitude today.
What will it be? What will yours be?
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