Gratitude

Focusing on the negative

Sometimes it is easy to focus on everything that is going wrong in our lives. Some of us may even catastrophize and globalize things exclaiming, “Why do bad things always happen to me?” Most of us have been guilty of this at one time or another in our lives. At the extreme, focusing on the negative can take one down a dark path, which is often hard to return from. Negativity breeds pessimism, depression, and anger and may lead to serious mental and physical health issues.

Gratitude is the solution

Gratitude is often the answer to people’s problems, for it helps them to reframe their life in a positive context. Gratitude allows people to look at what is right in their life, identify their strengths, and see what is good about them and others. They can then take this information and use it to move on from their problems and have hope that their situation will improve.

Exercises in gratitude

To discover your gratitude there are a few things you can do. When you find yourself caught up in negativity, you can stop everything and take five minutes to write a gratitude list – whether it be random or alphabetical. You can also keep a gratitude journal and write in it every day about what you are grateful for that happened that day or in general. You can even just think about things you are grateful for and it will help you change your mood and long-term state of mind. Go one step further and tell someone why you are grateful to have him/her in your life and watch how it makes both his/her and your day.

Share gratitude not negativity

Think about a world in which everyone shares only gratitude rather than negativity. Imagine the peace and fellowship. Imagine how much more open people would be to others. Negativity can be quite infectious, bringing down those around you. Likewise, gratitude can also be infectious, inspiring those around you to see the good in everything. Hard times will fall upon all of us; it is how we deal with them that define who we are. Gratitude helps create resilience and that is an attractive quality to possess.