Life is determined by a your attitude to it.
Not by the things that happen, but your attitude to the things that happen.
This is a fundamental law of life, one that we’re really not taught, or taught that well because so few people actually truly live from a hugely positive attitude.
But it’s a choice which changes everything.
Gratitude is key here, it is a powerful starter for an attitude, and life, shift.
You may think you know gratitude.
You’ve heard it all before, right? Well indeed, but lip service is the term I believe is applicable to many people in relation to gratitude.
(Ooh – aren’t I a little fiesty this morning?)
When you master gratitude you END all stress, all problems, all suffering. It's done, you live a completely free life. No more suffering.
Have you done that yet? Okay – read on!
Truly knowing gratitude is an incredible thing.
You see, gratitude is the antidote to the mind’s habitual tendency to take things for granted, to miss all the good that is in a life simply because it is focussing on what is missing or on what is wrong.
We don’t even see how much good is in our lives. We are completely blind to it.
The fact is, you have so much, so so so much.
You, reading this on a computer or phone, are one of the materially richest people in the world. Having the power of sight is a blessing in itself. Do you have a roof over your head? Hot and cold running water? Some kind of food, in a refrigerator – a machine that extends the life of your food meaning you don’t have to go out and get food every single day? In fact, you don’t even need to hunt and gather, you just wander down the shop and pick it up!
Given that, why do you complain, about anything?
And you do complain. If you’re like I was, oh you complain.
But there will be a moment when you wake up.
There will be a time, a moment of enlightenment, when you realise the hugely detrimental power of taking things for granted and complaining – and equally, the phenomenally positive, creative power of gratitude.
Or maybe you just reach that point where you get sick of whining. Or maybe you want to try gratitude on for size. Whatever gets you there is great.
But when you have this moment of realisation, and start doing something, everything becomes clear:
When you stop complaining and start being grateful, you stop being indifferent to big chunks of your life. You start to realise how precious and abundant your life actually is, already.
So you practice gratitude more and more, and you catch yourself complaining quicker and quicker.
You goal isn’t just to speak gratitude, but become gratitude. And that is what happens the more you practice it.
The very cool thing is that gratitude also means you stop falling into a victim mode of living.
When you are a victim it is as if life is being done to you. Life just happens, and you are at the mercy of it all, simply because you don’t realise your power of choice. You believe that life makes you feel a certain way, and therefore when life is good, you feel good. When life isn’t so good, you feel bad.
The trouble is the victim winds up in a cycle of avoiding the bad, and trying to hold onto the good. Life is becomes about the outside. The internal ability to define life becomes forgotten. Everything and everyone else gets the blame … a victim is blind to their own power to choose.
One of the biggest lessons of life is that you get to decide.
You get to decide whether this life is happening TO you, or FOR you. You get to choose how centred and happy you are. You get to choose whether you complain and blame, or shrug your shoulders, get grateful and present, and make the very best with what you have.
Gratitude means your life is not about the outside any more. When it’s not about the outside, when life is determined by you, then the whole thing can truly come alive.
That is an exciting moment.
So – how do YOU practice gratitude?
Not just so you think and say it, ticking it off your “to-do” list, but so that you practice it and become gratitude itself?
Go well!
Arjuna
PS.
An excellent practice this – a small amount of time goes a very long way.
When you do it, try and make the majority of the things you are grateful for concrete, something in front of you.
Why? Because then you get present as well. Focusing on the abstract, say your job or your life, is a cool thing, but try and make it about things you can see or sense too.
Just try!
PPS.
Gratitude is just one of 108 tips that I have in my free guide for being more positive, present and fully alive:
https://www.arjunaishaya.com/108-ways-full-content