GRATITUDE – A True Game Changer
Were you aware that there are 3 possible ways we can choose to view the situations in our lives? They are:
1. Why is this happening to me?
2. I know this is happening for me.
3. This situation is being created by me.
When we are asking “why” something is happening to us, we have opted to be in a victim mindset. We have chosen to believe that forces outside of us are responsible for our current dilemma and we are looking to place blame somewhere else. When we are looking at life from this perspective, we want to point the finger at someone else: “It’s their fault that I…” Sometimes when we are in this mindset, we believe that we are being punished; either by another person or even God. When we think we are being punished for something as a result of what has happened or is happening we are succumbing to a victim mindset. This is what the phrase “giving your power away” means. Another way that we give our power away is by blaming another person for affecting our mood or our energy. We can reclaim our power through GRATITUDE.
Gratitude is simply being thankful for what is and what you have in any particular moment in time. When we are holding a grudge, upset or even pissed off we are in our ego and have given our power away, our power to love. Love is the power that connects us to something higher. Love connects us to God. When we have given our power away or our in our ego, we have constricted the flow of energy within and around us. By focusing on being grateful for what is, we create expansion and as a result our energy within and around us expands again. When we are constricted, we are closed to all of the peace, love, joy and abundance that the Universe has to offer. When we expand, we once again allow the flow and we are able to receive the gifts of peace, love, joy and abundance.
When we begin to adapt the second perspective: I know this is happening for me, we begin to trust that “something is happening for a reason”. We trust that there are divine forces at work,forces beyond those of our own limited ego mind. We are beginning to listen at a deeper level. We are opening up to love again. We let go of the “why” and instead start looking for the lesson within the situation.
The lesson usually involves a withdrawal of love. Sometimes we stop loving ourselves. Sometimes we stop loving another. Sometimes we stop loving the situation. This happens when we become stuck in our own expectations:
We expect ourselves to be perfect.
or
We expect another to do something and they don’t.
or
We expect a certain outcome and it doesn’t come to pass.
When we are willing to honestly examine our expectations and be GRATEFUL for the clarity we are opening back up. We can practice gratitude that we have discovered one of our blocks to love. Expectations are blocks to love. When we can let them go and open up again to love ourselves and others we are ready to look at the situation from the third perspective.
When we reach this third and final stage, we realize that it is our perspective, expectations and judgments that have created the situation in the first place and we can continue to hold onto the grudge and be in the constrictive energy or practice gratitude, release our blockages, forgive the situation and move on.
Each of us experience all three of these stages throughout our life and GRATITUDE is a great tool that we can use to help loosen the constriction and help us reach the level of forgiveness possible in the third perspective. It’s a true game changer.
We can all get trapped in the need to know “why”. It is important to understand that the need to know “why” is driven by our ego. Why? Why? Why?
What is your WHY-ning costing you?
Do you want to shift out of the low vibration of victim consciousness?
A SHIFT IS JUST A THOUGHT AWAY.
Try this simple exercise next time you are “WHY-ning”:
1. Admit to yourself that you are WHY-ning.
2. Stop, close your eyes and notice how the energy feels in your body.
3. Now, continuing to keep your eyes closed, take 10 deep breaths and think of as many things as you can that you are grateful for.
4. After thinking of as many things as you can (I aim for about 10), notice how the energy feels in your body.
When you shift your attention away from how you think something “should’ve” happened and bring attention to the amazing things that are in your life now, a shift occurs. This is what spiritual practice is all about. It is not something you do once and expect results, it is a life long practice of changing your mind.
Imagine a life of total acceptance to what is…
Warmly,
Lorri
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