How to have an Attitude of Gratitude.

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.

Responses on Gratitude

Congratulations to the winner of our "gratitude" drawing, Gwendoline from Australia! Gwendoline will receive the Dream Big Collection by Jack Canfield as her gift. Want more inspiration? Read all the wonderful entries by our newsletter readers describing what they are grateful for in their lives. "I am so grateful for..."

Be Grateful FOR...not Grateful FROM!

The Secret looks at being grateful for what you already have, so that you can attract more of it. That seems like good advice (and it is). But that doesn’t mean that everyone is interpreting this good advice the same way.

Some of us are, unintentionally, being grateful FROM instead of being grateful FOR.

Confused? Don’t worry, I’ll explain this – or, at least I’ll try to!

The difference between being grateful “from” versus grateful “for” is very subtle; one of the most subtle distinctions you can imagine. Yet, its power to define your reality is PROFOUND, because of this: If you are grateful “from” something, that means that you’re grateful by default; you’re grateful because “things could be worse” or something bad “could be happening” to you.

Yes, this is a kind of gratitude, but it’s actually a rather low quality and, more specifically: you cannot be grateful “from” something unless you focus, constantly, on what you’re glad you DON’T have or is NOT happening.

For example, you may be grateful that you aren’t sick. Yes, that seems like gratitude; and it is. But, built into the very fabric of this kind of gratitude, is the idea that you could be sick. You are always, therefore, forced to remember that you aren’t sick. You must dwell on not being ill. You can't avoid think about this -- illness -- as you feel grateful.

Compare this to being grateful FOR good health. Gratitude FOR something doesn’t compel you to constantly think of what you’re “avoiding” – gratitude FOR is a positive vision. If you’re grateful FOR health, you are really grateful for health!

If you’re grateful FROM being ill, then you aren’t really tapping into gratitude; you’re simply glad that something bad isn’t happening. When you dwell on negative things – being grateful that something BAD isn’t happening – you actually attract more negativity. It can’t be helped. It’s like a little message that goes out that is constantly ringing with the negative – what you’re grateful FROM.

Stop living in the default. Find out what you’re grateful FOR and start to focus on THAT!