Thankfulness is a recurring theme in my posts. It’s not a secret that I believe (and have seen evidence in my own life) the more thankful we are the better our quality of life.

It’s easy to get caught in the ever-perpetuating cycle of self-pity and the muck and mire of “Woe is me.” Many people do it. However, the “everyone does it” justification doesn’t make it healthy or attractive to others. In fact, even entertaining the thought to enjoy self-pity (yes, people do enjoy it) can catapult you into the “toxic people” group. Granted, everyone can have a bad day. It’s the wallowing in negativity that becomes a problem.

I know, I was challenged with this last week. Some major life issues came up that challenged my [I’m working towards being] ever-thankful approach to life. As such, I was derailed for about 2 ½ days. What I discovered is that as long as I ruminated on my pain I was walking numbly through life. It was as if someone found the remote control to my being and pressed the mute button. I was only half-living, not enjoying the bounty of blessings I have been given.

So, I decided to trust God to restore all that had been taken from me (Joel 2:25-27) as he promised, and started listing the reasons I am thankful for this pain. And I was amazed at just how many reasons I had. As I reframed my view of the situation from seeing it as pain that robbed me of years of joy to one that has allowed me to grow into the person I am becoming (“growing” and “becoming” is a process) the mute button was released and I was again able to feel and live life.

I read a quote in O Magazine today that addressed this very topic. “Individuals who approach life with an attitude that all of life is a gift will be more likely to find the good in bad life circumstances. They are more likely to … move forward following a catastrophe. In fact, they may be more likely to label such an event a gift.” Robert A Emmosn, PhD in Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier.

I want to enjoy this gift of life to the fullest so I am thankful for all that comes my way. To help me stay focused on the positive I often give myself time to stop and make a list of all my blessings. When I do I find that there are many more good things in my life on which to focus than there are bad. And for that I am ever thankful.

Choose to be thankful and Choose a Better Life.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 9:51 am and is filed under Words. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.