Use gratitude to release your sorrows.

Drew’s Reminder,

 “Use gratitude to release your sorrows.” 

     This week’s topic is about a subject that is near and dear to my heart, gratitude.  I have learned a lot about gratitude over the last two years.  There is no shortage of information available that I didn’t even know existed.  If I wouldn’t have had my own experience with gratitude I doubt I would have ever known the information existed.  After all, it did take me 40+ years to finally get it.  Now that gratitude holds such an important place in my life experiences I feel compelled to share what I’ve learned to help others fully realize the power of gratitude.

     Earlier last week I posted a photo on Instagram.  It wasn’t a photo of a beautiful scene in nature; it was just a story that made me think about gratitude.  The story read:

LESSON IN LIFE

A wise man sat in the audience and cracked a joke.

Everybody laughs like crazy.

After a moment, he cracked the same joke again.

This time, less people laughed.

He cracked the same joke again and again.

When there is no laughter in the crowd,

He smiled and said:

You can’t laugh at the same joke again and again,

but why do you cry over the same thing

over and over again?

     Without adding any commentary this story does its job to make you think about drowning in your sorrows.  It’s written for those of you out there that can’t seem to get past something bad that has happened in your life.  Maybe you have done something that you continue to beat yourself up about.  Maybe something has been done to you or someone else that you just can’t seem to get past. Either way the emotion of being down will be detrimental to you if you let it linger for long periods of time. 

     The emotion of being happy however, has been proven to have a positive effect on your life.  There are many studies showing how laughter can actually help you heal faster if you are sick.  We all know the intrinsic value of our happy friend.  The happy friend that comes into the room and makes everyone feel good.  It’s contagious. It’s the kind of energy we all want to catch.  Yet, sometimes we get in our own way from allowing that happy energy into our lives.

     So why do some cry over the same thing over and over again?  There are many answers to that question and in the end we all have our different reasons.  I don’t want to try and find the reason why you do it.  I want to give you a tool to help keep you from doing it at all. 

     One powerful tool that immediately comes to mind is forgiveness.  Whether it’s forgiving yourself or others, the result is the same.  If you can truly forgive then you can move on and not wallow in the fact that it happened.  But forgiveness doesn’t work in every situation.  Sometimes there’s nothing to forgive.  Sometimes things just happen that we didn’t expect to happen and it makes us sad.  In many of those cases we end up sad because we don’t understand why it happened. 

     Do you need to forgive yourself for something you’ve done?   Do you need to forgive someone else for something they’ve done that has affected you?  Do you need to stop being sad about something that happened that no one could control? I have the perfect tool that will help in all of the situations above.  That tool is gratitude.

     Let’s tackle forgiveness first.  If you are having a hard time forgiving yourself or someone else, I want you to add gratitude to your tool kit.  Even if you don’t have a hard time forgiving you should still find a way to incorporate gratitude into your forgiveness.  The first thing that you need to realize is that you don’t actually know whether something “bad” is actually “bad” for you life.  Yes, it may hurt right now but there is always something that you can or will learn from what has happened.  You need to take the time to identify that something and then be grateful for it.  I could go through a long list of examples of dumb stuff I have done over my lifetime.  I won’t because some of them are just too embarrassing to share.  Yet, I am grateful for each and every dumb thing I have done.  I’m not grateful I did them.  I’m grateful that I’ve learned something from each and every one of them and it has molded me into the person I am today.  When I analyze each situation for the silver lining it actually helps me forgive myself in the end.  This works the same when it comes to forgiving someone else for something they’ve done as well. 

     The second situation involves something sad that has happened but there’s no one to forgive.  These things just happen.  Think of a natural disaster.  If you lose a loved one in a freak accident it will make you very sad.  However, at some point you are going to need to address your sadness to keep it from being detrimental to you.  The best way to address it is to search for the silver lining in the situation at hand.  In my opinion many times this is much easier.  You can be grateful for the time you did have with that loved one.  You can be grateful for the fact that you are still here and you can live a happy productive life.   No matter what you choose to be grateful for there is something.  It’s up to you to find it.

     Gratitude is a powerful tool because it focuses our thoughts on the things that we are happy about.  That focus will actually attract more of what you are grateful for into your own existence.  If you are grateful for your strength, you will be stronger.  If you are grateful for your persistence, you will be more persistent.  If you are grateful for the good times you’ve had, you will have more good times.  If you are grateful for the roof over your head and your ability to afford it, you will attract more into your life to keep that roof right where its supposed be.  The list goes on and on.  It is up to you to build that list and then acknowledge it.

     Trust me, I know how difficult this can be at times.  Yet, that cannot be an excuse not to do it.  We create our own reality.  Sometimes that will take some work.  That work is always worth it in the end.  The most important work we can do is the work that we do on ourselves.  In this case work is not a four-letter word.  It is a wonderful solution to being happy.  If there is something that has been bringing you down, take a moment to do some work to bring you back up.  Have a moment of gratitude.  I’m having one right now.  If I hadn’t lost my job two years ago I wouldn’t be typing this reminder right now and for that I am grateful.  I hope this reminder helps you find your moment too.  Enjoy the journey!

With gratitude,

Drew