I received an email today from a subscriber who was having Gratitude issues. After replying and letting her know my unsolicited thoughts, I thought that I would share this info with everyone.

Of course, certain things in the email were changed (i.e., name, and some other things) so as not to invade on anyone’s privacy.

Paul, I wanted you to know that I am getting your daily gratitude burst and it gives me great comfort, so thank you very much.

At the moment I am trying to deal with many family problems and am finding it very difficult to have an attitude of gratitude. The ridiculous thing is that the problems are not mine and yet I am losing sleep over them.

Tomorrow i will start another gratitude diary and see if it helps.

Thank you for your encouragement.–John Doe

Here is my reply:

Hi John -

I am sorry you are dealing with this. it does not sound like you are having fun at all!

Here is my unsolicited advice – and it is free – so consider the value there

1. Just smile. Don’t think. Just smile. This simple act can be a short respite from the stress you are feeling. It has the potential of changing your entire mood.

2. Remember that there is a lesson in all this for you. You might not like it and you might wish it was not happening. But, you are meant to learn something from this. In the middle of the confusion you might be going through, try to analyze what it is that you need to learn. Is it, “How do I  deal with difficult family members?” Or perhaps it is, “How can I better communicate with my teenage son or daughter?” I don’t know what you are facing, but you can grow from it.

The key here is to learn the lesson NOW so it is not repeated again in the future. I am a slow learner and I am presented with the same lessons sometimes.. over and over again.

3. A gratitude journal will help, I am sure! Make it a discipline. Set a time each day (or multiple times a day) and write it in. If you don’t feel like writing, that is a sign that you really should! Here is a link to a post I wrote about them: http://allaboutgratitude.com/blog/101/gratitude-journal/

I hope these three tid-bits help you through this unsettling time. Doing them is easier said than done, I understand that. Give it your best shot!

Be Well.

Paul.?

Even if life is going great for you, these 3 items will help bring more gratitude into your life.

Today’s gratitude post is from Kathy L. – she is over at BellaOnline. One thing that I really liked about her article is that she talks about that Gratitude is not necessary east to implement all the time. I have said it before – gratitude is simple… but not always easy.

An Attitude of Gratitude

I have a post-it on my computer at work with only one word, “gratitude”. The thing that sometimes bothers me is that it is there for me to see every single day and yet there are days I don’t see it at all. It actually becomes invisible. I only seem to see it when I need to see it and that was not the intent of putting it there in the first place. The intent was to notice it many times per day and acknowledge gratitude with a very quiet “thank you” or whatever I wanted to say to my Higher Power.

One of the important things I learned in the beginning of 12 Step Recovery was to be grateful. Well, actually I had to relearn how to be grateful because for so long it didn’t seem as there was much in my life for which to be grateful. The kinds of things I felt grateful for always seemed to follow one of those foxhole prayers that most addicts tend to do quite well. Being grateful for the fact that the cop didn’t stop you or that you found that bottle or pill you lost doesn’t exactly constitute the type of gratitude recovery suggests.

Gratitude isn’t always that easy. Gratitude means being grateful for the daily struggles of life, some of which can seem rather unbearable. I was told I didn’t have to mean it. All I had to do was pray it. It is easy to be grateful for gifts. The idea of being grateful for difficulties is that these are put before us so that we may learn and grow. Hopefully, the difficulties eventually either disappear completely or actually become gifts.

What I know about gratitude today is that because of a 12 Step Recovery program I was able to enjoy my daughter, her husband, and my three grandbabies for over a week. I felt more gratitude for my recovery and my Higher Power than I had in a while because I was in the midst of living in gratitude. I was living in that “now” that sometimes seems so elusive. And while I was in the middle of all of that gratitude I was confronted by a most difficult issue by another member of my immediate family. I had to remember how important gratitude was so that I could accept this new problem and know that it wasn’t about me. I had to remember gratitude so that I could accept this issue and work through it without anxiety and worry. If I do not accept this problem with gratitude, it could easily become something I want to try to control or worse yet, obsess over. I cannot afford to do either.
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