“The opposite of depression is not ‘Yipeee!’ The opposite of depression is ‘gratitude.’”  Andy Andrews

How did you last exercise your gratitude muscle?

Thank God no matter what happens.  (1 Thess. 5:18a; MSG)

I’m sold on gratitude.  You’ve probably noticed that I’ve written a number of DGs on the topic over the last couple of years.  If I were given the chance to give just one piece of advice that would change everybody’s life, I would unhesitatingly have to say it would be, “Develop an attitude of gratitude!”

Not very original, I’ll admit, but it’s a lot like health and wellness. Everybody acknowledges its significance, but very few do anything about it. Gratitude is like that. No matter how dire your circumstances are, you can always find something to be grateful about. And as soon as you do, you will immediately begin to climb out of the hole you’re in.

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“Newness is all about perception.”  Jonathan Wells

What is your favorite thing to hate?  Do you enjoy hating that thing (or person) so much that you would be unwilling to change?

A bowl of soup with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate.  (Prov. 15:17; NLT)

Jonathan Wells, whom I quoted above, has become one of my favorite bloggers.  I’ve included what I believe is his most recent post, titled “What Remains When the Newness Wears Off?” as today’s link.  It’s a very insightful post about the balance needed between staying adaptable to change while at the same time not taking the valuable things in your life for granted, i.e., losing the appreciation and gratitude that you had when they were new.

His post speaks of both things and of relationships, and much like he did in his post, I’m going to focus more on the relationships side of things for my thoughts today.  I heard a story over the weekend of a man and his wife who were having a particularly difficult disagreement.  After a period of heated exchange, the man literally walked out of the house in a huff, just to get away from the conflict for a bit.  (By the way, it’s often a very important strategy of conflict, to call a temporary time out to let emotions cool a bit — but that should always be a mutually agreed upon temporary truce and not just a unilateral turn tail and walk out like done in this particular story.)

As the story teller was stomping through the woods close to his house, getting angrier and angrier with each stomp because he was totally focused and consumed by the injustices he felt were being foisted upon him, he suddenly had a “left-field thought” pop into his head, “What was it about your wife that drew you to her in the first place?”  As he allowed that train of thought to gain momentum, his anger mysteriously began to disappear — replaced by gratitude and appreciation for the relationship he and is wife had developed over the years.

To make a short story even shorter, in a fairly small amount of time, this gentleman had completely lost his anger, totally changed his attitude toward his wife, and was eager to get back to the house to tell her how much he loved her, appreciated her, and to ask her forgiveness for the part he had played in the earlier tiff.  Since she could see the sincerity in his eyes, she was quick to accept his apology, offered her own, and the issue moved from one of volatility to one of mutual agreement regarding the outcome.

It’s an amazing story, which illustrates my post of two days ago regarding the ability we all have to “flip the switch” on our emotions by simply changing what we are thinking about.  This whole idea of gratitude and appreciation is vital to any and every relationship.

The same kind of thinking extends far beyond your mate.  It extends to your job or career, to your possessions, to where you live, or to just about anything.  You can always find something good to say about anything.  Hate your job?  Maybe so.  But I can promise you that there are some good features about your job.  Maybe it’s a steady paycheck.  Maybe it’s because it’s indoors rather than out in the rain.  Maybe because you are given time each day to eat.  You may have to dig a little, but I promise you that you can find a few good things about almost anything.  And I’ll also promise you that if you find those two or three good things and focus your thoughts on them, that it won’t be long before your attitude will do a complete turn-around.

How cool is that?  Virtually no effort required.  Just focus on the good things and watch the world all around you change right before your very eyes.

Prayer Power
Father, help us to remember to look for the good in those things we are not terribly fond of so that we can experience this miracle of an attitude change right before our own eyes.  Show us how to be good-finders.

Link of the Day
What Remains When the Newness Wears Off?

Blessings on you as you take steps to show your gratitude and appreciation to someone close to you this week.

Photo by h.koppdelaney

“Life’s not about waiting for the storm to pass…it’s about learning to dance in the rain!”  Vivian Green

How do you handle some of life’s storms?

I will thank you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.  (Psa. 9:1; NLT)

Max Anderson over at Simple Truths has done it again.  This time with a little movie about gratitude — a topic very close to my heart.  Those of you who are somewhat new with our Daily Grams probably aren’t aware that over the almost two years we’ve been writing Daily Grams, I’ve posted more than a dozen DGs regarding gratitude.  (Look at the Category list in the left column and click on “Gratitude” for the complete list.)

Oprah Winfrey has been quoted as saying, “The single greatest thing you can do to change your life today would be to start being grateful for what you have right now.”  This is so totally true.  Frankly, I can look at that whole “attitude of gratitude” thing and say unequivocally that it is a major part of what is responsible for my transition from a “glass half empty” outlook to a far happier and more fulfilled “glass full and overflowing” view toward life.

And the thing that still amazes me is that I can choose to focus on the challenges in my life and I soon am drowning in them as they seem to multiply like rabbits.  How much more productive, and fun, it is to choose to focus on the blessings of life.  In the first place, there’s always a whole lot more blessings than there are challenges.  (Now I suppose if you’ve been focusing on your challenges, you might not agree with me on that, but trust me — it’s a truism.)

Then in the second place, if you make the choice to focus on the your blessings, then they seem to supernaturally begin to multiply like rabbits.  When that begins to happen, the challenges mysteriously fade into the background in favor of the stronger and more numerous blessings.  But then you’ve heard all this before…some of you old timers, more than a dozen times from me.  You know what?  I’m feeling the urge to write another DG or two about gratitude.  What do you think?

Give gratitude a try.   I’m convinced you’ll be glad you did.  BTW, if you have any gratitude stories, we would all love to hear them.  Just write them in the comment section below.

Prayer Power
Father…we can hardly pray to You without expressing our gratitude for all that You do for us.  Words simply fail us as we try to express how much we appreciate You.

Link of the Day
Dance in the Rain Movie

Blessings on you as you as you stop to make a list of at least six things you’re grateful for this very day.

“Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other. It embraces judgment, discernment, comprehension. It is a gestalt or oneness, and integrated wholeness.”  Stephen R. Covey

What steps can you take to be more proactive about living in wholeness?

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.  (2 Peter 3:1; NIV)

Jerry and I talk a lot about wellness.  We’re passionate about educating others on how they can obtain and maintain wellness and walk in optimal health, ultimately fulfilling their God-given destiny while here on earth.  When we walk in wellness, we’re also walking in wholeness.

Dictionary.com states that wholeness is, “The quality or state of being whole, entire, or sound; entireness; totality; completeness.”  Let’s look at seven ways that one can “Live in Wholeness.”

Attitude of gratitude.  When one is thankful, life is better.  The more we think of ways to be thankful, the more things occur for us to be thankful.  A wonderful exercise is to end a day with speaking out loud five or ten things that happened that day that you’re thankful for.

Accept and offer forgiveness.  Offering forgiveness to someone when we’ve been wronged brings freedom to us.  We’re set free from the bitterness that has the potential to destroy us.  Accepting forgiveness from the Lord and from others when we’ve been wrong also will bring restoration and wholeness to us.

Accelerate activity.  Moving more not only helps our physical body become healthier, but our emotions, our ability to handle stress, and our sleep are greatly impacted positively the more we move and develop consistent exercise routines.  Learn what your body loves to do to move more.

Adequate sleep.  Most people don’t get enough sleep nor is their sleep deep and sound.  Sound sleep is essential for living a life of wholeness.  It is the ultimate “pause that refreshes.”  Develop a consistent bedtime, preferably before 10:30 PM and sleep in as dark a room as possible.

Ample hydration.  We all know that water is essential for life.  Water is the single most important nutrient for our bodies.  Without adequate hydration of clean, pure water, no one can walk in wholeness.  Become a serious water drinker, drinking at least half of your body weight in ounces of water per day.

Avoid artificial food and aspartame.  Eat real food.  Eat whole food to become whole.  Eat foods that rot or spoil, but eat them before they do.  Think vegetables, fruits, lean, clean meats and poultry, eggs, raw nuts and seeds, beans, avocados, olive and coconut oil.

Arsenal of supplements.  It’s known science that it is no longer possible to get all of the nutrients we need for life and health from the food we eat.  We must add supplementation to our diets for ultimate wholeness.  Whole foods vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, probiotics, essential fatty acids, and glyconutrients are some of the major players needed.

Father, thank You that You have given us all that we need to walk in wholeness.  Direct our steps in acquiring all that is necessary.

UNCOMMON Wellness Coaching

Blessings on you as pursue wholeness.

“Man is never satisfied. This fact is deplored by many, but God did not intend that man should be forever satisfied.”  Raymond Holliwell

In what areas of your life would you like to see growth?

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  (Mat. 7:7; NIV)

Who hasn’t heard the sagely advice, “Be satisfied with what you’ve got.”  Sounds good doesn’t it?  The problem with it is that it comes from an untrue belief.  And like most untrue beliefs, it results in limitation.

Limitation?  How so?  Well, if you’re satisfied, you won’t try for more…or greater…or higher, etc.  What invention or breakthrough can you name that was inspired by someone being satisfied with what they had?  Nada!  None!  Satisfaction is inherently limiting.

What is untrue about satisfaction being desirable?  For one thing, the whole notion that satisfaction is a good thing.  After all, satisfaction is the antithesis of growth.  Look around you.  If something is not growing, it’s dying.  Things (or people) don’t get better by just sitting around maintaining status quo.  The second law of thermodynamics, better known as the law of entropy says that the natural progression of everything is to go from order to disorder.  Sitting still, or being satisfied, always leads to decline…disorder…death.

As bad as satisfaction is, to be ungrateful is perhaps even worse.  We should be grateful for all that we have, with where we are — “always give thanks for everything” (Eph. 5:20a; NLT).

So be always be grateful, give thanks, and begin to reach for the next level.  A life of growth and advancement is the life that God intended man to live.

Prayer Power
Father, we ask You to be quick about showing us those areas in our life where You are not satisfied with our current situation.  May we never be complacent in our reach for our God-given destiny.

Link of the Day
If You Aren’t Growing, You’re Dying

Blessings to you as you take steps to plan your growth in an area where you aren’t satisfied.