“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

― Eckhart Tolle

I think we can all agree, it’s been a big year for everyone around the world, with many unexpected challenges, and that is why we have decided to place our focus on Gratitude this month. Let’s close the year by digging inside and reflecting upon the blessings, and what hidden treasures we have discovered that we can be grateful for.

Did you know  that if you express gratitude, it raises your happiness? When you take a moment to give thanks for what you have, instead of ruminating on what you don’t have, it fills you up. 

Although the importance of having a positive attitude should be obvious to us, often we can become overly consumed with negative thoughts and biases, and before we know it we’re looking through the lens of Dooms Ville.

You may not have been taught to look at the world as a half-full glass, rather than a half-empty one; but this simple shift in perspective, helps us to seek the silver lining in all occurrences, uplifting and assisting us in staying optimistic. 

So, if gratitude is so good for your mental and emotional health, then why do so many people struggle to practice it?

Well, this can be, because through our society and conditioning we have been hardwired to fixate or dwell on the negative. Painful past experiences, fearful news stories etc, captivate our attention and feed the negativity cycle.

It is said that negative events have a greater impact on our brains than positive ones, and so we can often get stuck in mental loops of ruminating on the ‘bad’. As a result of this, we move further away from gratitude and happiness.

As Lewis Howes says: “If you concentrate on what you have, you’ll always have more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you’ll never have enough.”

Let’s dive deeper and see what it is that keeps us trapped in these unproductive cycles and how we can break free from the negativity trap. It all starts with the recognition of what’s going on inside our heads, and this one simple, yet profound question can bring us much clarity...

We all tell ourselves stories about who we are and what our life is like. Maybe your story is that you’re always tired and stressed out. Maybe it’s that you just can’t make a relationship work, or maybe it's about a health issue or lack of money.

The negative stories we tell ourselves limit our capacity for joy and limit the ways in which we can serve the world. The more we repeat them and believe them, they then become our reality.

The thoughts and the stories we tell ourselves either pollute the world or elevate it. They either trap us or liberate us. Therefore it’s good to keep remembering, that it’s our responsibility to be consciously aware of our thoughts, so that we can feel better, and put out a better energetic vibration in the world and no one can do that for us, it’s up to us!

The good news is, we have the power to change the direction of our focus and through cultivating an attitude of gratitude, we can change our whole view and experience of life!

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