Creating the life you want by using your passion

By acknowledging the life you now have and being grateful for the things and people in it, you begin the creative process that will sculpt your life from here on out. Once you realize that gratitude brings you even more to be grateful for, then the rest is gravy.

By taking your life and examining it, you begin to see that there generally is more to feel grateful for than to whine about. Yes, some people may think that the negative forces in their lives far outweigh any positives, but when we really examine the list of what we have to be grateful for, we see that it’s far more than possessions and wealth that evokes gratitude in us.

For example, by being able to read this article, logic tells me you have access to the internet (1), that you have the intelligence to read it (2), that you have eyesight to see these words (3) and that you have the ability to run a computer (4). This doesn’t even take into account the roof that’s keeping you dry or shaded right now, the lights and electricity that help you see and read this, the clothing you wear to cover your body and the dinner in your belly. It doesn’t include the beverage beside you, the people around you who love you, the support you get despite your shortcomings, and so forth.

As you can see, our gratitude lists can be so much longer when we truly examine what we actually have in our lives. The current atmosphere in our culture has us looking beyond much of what we should examine with our grateful eyes. It has us bypass these important additions to our life, focusing us on the latest this or the coolest that. Today our attention gets drawn away from what’s really important, trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Much of what we consider “necessities”, many in the world see as luxury. Automatic washers and dryers free up so much of our time. Many women still beat their garments on rocks, unaware that there is a machine that does it all for you. Much of the world walks, rides a bicycle or live animal. Cars are a luxury, any way you look at it. Yes, people move to places where public transportation doesn’t exist, so a car is considered a necessity. However, it is a luxurious necessity, one that can be used for all facets of our busy lives.

Imagine not being able to go to a tap and have clean running water? Or flush a toilet. Or a television or phone. These things are modern conveniences and we shouldn’t be taking them for granted.

Our list of gratitudes must of course begin with the people who love us and support us. You might not even be aware of how many people send us good wishes, but they are there. If you’ve even had to be in hospital for an unplanned visit, you’ll see how many well-wishers you have around you.

Embrace your gratitude. Don’t see it as something you must work at, hate or treat as a chore. If you don’t actually FEEL it, there’s no real sense in doing it. It becomes a by-rote exercise that way. You need to feel the thankfulness that your life brings you. You need to embrace the feelings of gratitude, once you’ve really got a realistic look at the bounty in your life.

No matter your budget, no matter your neighborhood, no matter your economic status, there is always something in our lives for which to be grateful.

Once you start to find the genuine gratitude that is at the core of who you are, you begin to master your life….you begin to take control. Once you realize that your life is full of reasons to smile, you begin to smile. When you smile, you push the negative away. And when you do that…when you push the negative thoughts away, your life begins to change. You begin to attract more and more that makes you smile.

Give it a try. Be grateful. It makes each day better.

© 2013