It seems like every time I open one of my social media pages a ’30-Day Gratitude Challenge’ pops up! Is this happening to any of you? It probably shouldn’t bug me as much as it does, but I’m struggling. Why? Because I had planned to offer this same challenge, but life got busy and I got behind and well other beat me to the punch line.
Since I missed this opportunity, it’s given me time to reflect on why it was so important to me in the first place. My thoughts went deeper, and I started to wonder why we give so much thought to gratitude in November in the first place. Shouldn’t we be just as focused on gratitude the other 11 months or 335 days of the year? What would our lives look like if we intentionally focused on gratitude every day?
In today’s world, it can be hard to focus on things we are thankful for. It seems that every time we turn on the TV, open the newspaper, or tune into social media, we are bombarded with bad news. We hear stories of war, terrorism, and negative politics. Our world is full of negative messages and we’re impacted by these messages.
These stories are real, but if we let them consume us, our world can become a dark and scary place. There still is good in this world; however, for some crazy reason, the positives in life usually don’t make headlines.
The truth is; that which consumes our mind, will end up controlling our lives. Let me break this down. If we allow our mind to be filled with negative thoughts or images, our thoughts are going to be primarily negative. Therefore, if we want to live a more positive life, we need to fill our minds with more positive thoughts. We must be intentional about putting more positives into our mind than negatives.
In order to put more positives vs negatives into our lives we must examine several areas of our lives. Ask yourself:
- Who do I spend the majority of my time with? Do they give me energy or drain me? Are they primarily a positive or negative influence?
- What messages am I receiving from the TV shows I watch? Are the messages primarily positive or negative? Remember to include the news with your TV watching!
- What messages am I receiving from the social media, books, magazines or articles that I am reading? Are the messages primarily positive or negative?
In order to start living a more positive and meaningful life, you must intentionally put more positives then negatives into your head…daily. Gratitude is an art and the more you practice gratitude the better you’ll get and actually the better you will feel!
Here’s my challenge to you this week: Find some quiet time each day and start writing a gratitude journal. A gratitude journal is all the positive things in your life or all the things that you are grateful for each day. Struggling to find things that you are thankful for? Let me help. If you can get out of bed on your own, be thankful. If you can see, be thankful. If you wake up next to the one you love, be thankful. If you had food for breakfast, be thankful. Most of us are so blessed, that we take our family, health and life for granted.
If you are truly looking to live a more meaningful life, you must monitor what you are filling yourself with every day. It’s your choice to fill your mind and time with positive messages and uplifting people or with negative stories and negative people…the choice is yours.
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