{"id":6814,"date":"2015-12-28T19:00:39","date_gmt":"2015-12-29T01:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lovingonme.com\/?p=6814"},"modified":"2017-03-16T12:34:34","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T17:34:34","slug":"fighting-for-gratitude-in-a-fear-fueled-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/2015\/12\/28\/fighting-for-gratitude-in-a-fear-fueled-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting for Gratitude in a Complaining World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Daily<\/a>Thirty days of thanks\u00a0was my goal. For an entire month, I\u00a0challenged my Facebook friends to join me, in sharing a moment of gratitude as our day’s first post. You’d think it would be easy, especially given that it was November, a month when thankfulness is top of mind. But as it turns out, in a world fueled by fear, greed and vanity, gratitude can sometimes be\u00a0hard to come by.<\/p>\n

Every morning we wake up to a fresh batch of catastrophes. From cataclysmic events such as terrorist attacks to unexpected annoyances, like a new zit on the side of our face, life presents us with a myriad of reasons to be irritated and ungrateful. Without even realizing it, we can be sucked into a sea of negativity, complaining about everything that\u2019s going wrong, and missing out on the joy of appreciating all the good that surrounds us.<\/p>\n

Which is a real shame, because next to love, gratitude is one of the most powerful forces in the universe.\u00a0It can single handedly\u00a0enhance our delight and fulfillment in the present, while also changing our perspective on the possibilities of our future. It reduces our stress over what we don\u2019t have, and allows us to see what we do have, as enough. It\u2019s the key ingredient to a happy<\/a> and content life, but unfortunately, most of us use it only sparingly.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the solution? Is it possible to add more gratitude in our day when we\u2019re constantly being bombarded by things that stress us out? Absolutely! Here are three ideas to help you get started:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Take pleasure in the little things.<\/strong> One of the easiest ways to integrate thanks into our every day is to celebrate the simple things: that first cup of morning coffee, a smile shared with a stranger, or a parking space near the door. Giving thanks for the things we often take for granted is a great way to make an attitude of gratitude a way of life.<\/li>\n
  2. Look for the good, even in sucky situations.<\/strong> Our post holiday flight home was cancelled. We could\u2019ve gotten upset, but for what, when there\u2019s nothing we could do to change our circumstances? Instead we decided to relax, and appreciate the extra time to spend with family. Choosing to see the good, despite the circumstances, allowed us to be thankful for what we had, rather than focusing on what we couldn\u2019t control.<\/li>\n
  3. Serve those less fortunate.<\/strong> Whatever issues I think I have, when I walk into a shelter, soup kitchen, or pantry, seem a whole lot lighter when I walk out. That\u2019s what happens when we learn to see the basics as blessings. Our high-class problems quickly shrink into proper perspective, as gratitude gives us a whole new view.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    See how easy it is to make an attitude of gratitude a way of life? Okay, maybe not easy, but definitely doable. Listen, life is too short for us to spend our days complaining. Bad things are going to happen. Stuff isn\u2019t going to go our way. We won\u2019t always have everything we want. But in the midst of it all, there\u2019s still something \u2013 even if it\u2019s a small something \u2013 for which we can be grateful.<\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s focus there, rather than wasting our words on complaints. In fact \u2013 I have a new challenge. Let\u2019s take complaining out of our conversation. Every time we feel ourselves about to voice a complaint, let\u2019s change it into a word of thanks. Find something in our situation for which we can be grateful. It may not take away our hurts or problems, but it will surely change our perspective, granting us more moments of joy along our journey.<\/p>\n

    Are you with me? Let\u2019s make this next year our best year, by fighting for gratitude, as part of our everyday!<\/p>\n

    Hugs and Love\u00a0\u2764<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Thirty days of thanks\u00a0was my goal. For an entire month, I\u00a0challenged my Facebook friends to join me, in sharing a moment of gratitude as our day’s first post. You’d think it would be easy, especially given that it was November, a month when thankfulness is top of mind. But as it turns out, in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sharing_disabled":false,"switch_like_status":false,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[204997546,114917237],"tags":[204997827,204997828,204997826,5411,204997597,122792808],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Daily-Gratitude.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eAxC-1LU","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9418,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6814\/revisions\/9418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}