Attitude of Gratitude When Things Go Wrong? How to Be Upbeat, Not Phony
We hear a lot in "The Secret" circles about the importance of a "gratitude attitude," but how can we feel grateful when bad things happen? Isn't it phony to pretend you're grateful when things are actually going wrong? And how exactly does gratitude make things better?
What Gratitude Attitude Isn't
A gratitude attitude doesn't mean living in an emotional monotone, where your response to every situation is "I'm so grateful." Nor does it mean acceptance and submission, telling yourself the situation is just as it should be when in fact you know it's atrocious. Speaking up or taking action is important when something is wrong. Is it possible then to be realistic and grateful both, when bad things happen?
It is, because the bad stuff isn't what we're grateful for. We're grateful for the good that is somewhere in there with it. By looking for the good parts in any situation, we find the hope and motivation to work through the nasty stuff and make things right again.
Pollyanna Had It Down
A few decades back, the child star Haley Mills made a wonderful movie called "Pollyanna." She played a charming girl who always saw the cup as half full. No matter how bleak a situation, Pollyanna saw the bright side. This endeared her to everyone, because having her around made their own viewpoints more positive and cheerful.
Pollyanna didn't pretend everything was fine when it wasn't. She cared when people were hurt and things weren't right. But she helped people to a different way of seeing that made lemonade out of lemons.
In one delightful scene, the servants are miserable because it's Sunday. They're required to sit around being prim all day and not allowed to have fun. They challenge Pollyanna to find something to be glad for in that. The little girl's response, after some thinking: "Well, you could be glad because it's seven whole days before it's Sunday again!"
Grat-At: Knowing Your Own Power
That's the gentle focus shift that a gratitude attitude brings (you may like to call it a "gladness attitude"). It means looking for what's good in something and being glad for that part. It's knowing that no matter how bad something appears, your possibilities and resources are endless.
Being grateful means knowing that underneath our physical form, we are consciousness, and that consciousness is power. Consciousness (thought) structures the universe. As long as our inner nature is what thoughts are made of, we can touch the world with our thoughts and change it.
Quantum Physics Weighs In
Quantum physics demonstrates this to be fact. It says that at the deepest level of creation, matter responds to thought. Simply by expecting a light particle to go through Slit A in a screen rather than through Slit B, scientists are able to make a photon go through that slit. Holding an intention and expecting it to manifest is how we create or change things through our mind. No matter how bleak a situation, shouldn't we always be grateful for that?
We can alter anything. That ability of choice, of making things happen according to our desire, is one of the best things about living. Perhaps this capacity of human consciousness deserves our gratitude more than anything else. Once we know how to create reality, we never have to be victims again.
2 comments:
In the U.S., we celebrate Thanksgiving the 4th Thursday in November. It has always been my family's custom to go around the table and each person would say something s/he is thankful for. This year when it came to me to say, I said everything and meant it. My youngest brother said I must have a great life if everything was going right for me. I started to equivocate on what I said. Then I realized that my life did not have to be "perfect" for me to be grateful for everything. The fact was that everything that mattered to me I was grateful for and I told my brother so. I think he was still a little stumped.
Thanks for sharing. There are so many times when we focus all our attention and what we don't have that we forget all we have been blessed with.
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