Getting Grateful

Lately I have been noticing all the rage and anger in the world. Which of course gets me to thinking on where it comes from and how the heck do we stand against it? Some would say you battle rage with love. I say we withstand rage with gratitude.

Battle in the name of love is hard to distinguish from rage.
Let’s face it if you are in a battle emotions run high and strong. Often fighting fire with fire does work but in this case I think a dose of emotional cleansing water is a much better solution. Gratitude is that water. True gratitude turns rage and anger from a raging wildfire into a controlled campfire; something productive and controlled. I’m guessing some of you would prefer I say it will get rid of these emotions all together; not gonna happen. Emotions and feelings are healthy, eradicating them is not.

Gratitude can be hard to find.
Truth is that when things aren’t going well gratitude suddenly seems to have a cloak of invisibility. You know it’s there somewhere; you look for it but it is impossible to see or find. This is when I like to use the one thing at a time theory.

Mass gratitude looks good and sounds good but in daily life I find it isn’t very achievable. That said I can always achieve gratitude for something and from there more things. Often my gratitude comes down to bare bones gratitude along the lines of thank you universe for this difficult day to be coming to a close. Or waking up and saying thank you for this new day and for having that brutal day behind me. From there I am always able to be thankful for a roof over my head, clothes on my back and food on my table that I am able to share with friends and loved ones. As you can see once I get going on the gratitude roll it just keeps going and going like a certain bunny that represents batteries.

We all have things going on that can keep us from feeling grateful.
Everybody has life happening, so along with joyful moments there is trauma, addictions, abuse, illness, confusion, fear, stress and these difficult times often become blockades against gratitude. I know firsthand that it is damn near impossible to find anything to be grateful for when a loved on commits suicide. For me I latched onto the one truth I could find which was my father wasn’t in pain anymore. A small thing that was just enough to keep the door from closing on the joyful memories. Like a nightlight in the darkness of my grief.

It is my belief that when we get lost in hard times or negative memories we program ourselves to stay in survival mode. If our mind is constantly thinking of negative, painful things that is all we will see. Our ego will kick in and start creating a reality to help us survive the pain by making that pain acceptable to us. The ego doesn’t reason, it doesn’t say hey that is not healthy, the ego does its job – survival of the self at any cost. If pain and strife are what you program your ego to see as acceptable, well that is what you will have. From there it is a very easy hop to a life of anger and frustration.

Gratitude is a great way to reprogram your ego.
Never fear there is always another choice, in this case finding gratitude is the perfect way to reprogram your ego! One small thing you are truly grateful for; you can’t short cut this one, you have to really feel gratitude about it, and you are on your way. Pretty soon that one thing will become two, and then those two will become three and slowly you will find your perceptions start to shift. The positive will take the primary focus in your life, not as a false platitude but as an actual manifestation.

My challenge to you…
Wake up every day and find at least one thing you are truly and sincerely grateful for and say thank you out loud. Then before you go to sleep at night do it again, it could be the same thing, it could be something new from your day, but acknowledge it out loud with a thank you. Do this for 30 days and see what happens. Did you trade in a frown for a giggle? Was that stressful something so much easier than you expected? Did you start to experience all the little random acts of kindness around you? Let’s find out, your 30 days start now….3…2...1...GO!