STOP WISHING YOUR LIFE AWAY – PRACTICE GRATITUDE

The winter solstice for us in the Northern Hemisphere is this weekend.  Many of us view this time of year with great negativity because we live in areas where there is little sunshine and so much darkness and often very cold temperatures.  All this can lower our spirits to the point where we find ourselves wishing our lives away thinking something like, “I can’t wait until spring”.  Gratitude for the dark, cold days is the last thing on our minds.

Wishing life away brings to mind other instances when we can find ourselves doing the same thing.  How about when working at a job that you are not satisfied with and you continually look at the clock waiting for your lunch break.  Then after lunch you count the hours/minutes until quitting time. Have you ever done that?  What about when doing a task around the house that you are not fond of…what is your mind focused on?  Ideally your mind would be focused on the task at hand, in the moment, because that is all you have.  You’d be truly experiencing every minute of your life rather than zoning out.  Yet it is common to avoid the moment when it is not comfortable or when it is not what we want, isn’t it?  But then we are not truly living our life, we are spending a large part of it wishing for something else. 

When we are in any uncomfortable situation—the dark, cold days that we would rather avoid or the dissatisfaction with a job—it is an opportunity to practice gratitude.  Yes, gratitude!  Gratitude does put us in the moment and has us feel and experience our life more fully.  Sure, it’s easy to be grateful when things are going very nicely—it’s another thing entirely to be grateful for the things we don’t like, for what may even be painful emotionally or physically.  Yet that is how we truly gain the ability to live each moment of our lives and to gain that sense of inner peace that allows us to enjoy our lives more.

Right now so many people are going through tough times because of the economy.  Losing jobs, losing homes, losing a business, seeing investments dwindle, etc.  What a great time to “be with what is”.  Just sitting with the emotions and practicing gratitude for life, for what is present.   

So how about it?  Are you up for practicing gratitude for everything—just being with what is even if you don’t like it?  Of course, you may have the opportunity to change it and if you can’t change it, then your practice of gratitude will certainly make a difference in how you feel. Your practice of gratitude will change “you”.