My Attitude of Gratitude!

I love this time of year! I love the holidays...family and friends...I have so much to be grateful for and often find myself thinking that throughout the day. I look at my life and I am in awe of how blessed I truly am...I have a wonderful husband that I've had in my life since I was 19. He has been my rock, my best friend, my lesson that there is something such as unconditional love. Do we fight? Hell yeah! Do we laugh? Hell yeah!

My daughter is amazing! We waited 11 years to have her. My husband and I never felt we had to have kids, so we waited and traveled and spent tons of time together just being "us" before she was born. She is such a good 22 month old. Her laugh is amazing! It actually makes my heart smile...if a heart can smile...:) 

I'm grateful for the experiences of my past. Whether they were good or bad...they made me the person I am today. Not that I am wonderful or anything. I'm just happy with me so far. Through bad experiences, I've learned so much about myself. I've forced myself to look at those experiences, and own up to how I contributed to the situation negatively. Most importantly, I truly believe that everyone is inherently good. The problem is when "fear" gets involved. Most of the time, people act out of fear. That fear is what will twist the "good" in people. 

Recently, in the "Wentzville Holistic Adventurers Group", I led a gratitude exercise. I wasn't sure how it would go over, because it wasn't a typical gratitude exercise. I took paper and pens and gave it to each person. I then had everyone write a gratitude letter to a person who had not necessarily been a great person to have in their life experience. Maybe that person hurt them, was angry at them, or someone they had a hard time forgiving. We would then fold them up. I would cleanse the negativity associated with the letter and then increase the positivity of the letters with Reiki. We would then place them behind us to represent letting the past be the past. Of course, everyone had the option to participate or not. It was meant to be an activity that challenged our previous thoughts, beliefs, and make us step out of our comfort zone for a little bit. After all, you can't grow spiritually, if you never test yourself or push yourself. In the end, many told me how much they enjoyed that exercise. I was happy to hear that, because asking people to focus on someone who may have hurt them could have went either way. 

So, maintaining an attitude of gratitude isn't always bright, fuzzy, and soft. To truly have a attitude of gratitude, you must look at how every positive/negative experience or person somehow made your life better. That can be really difficult, but if you find yourself able to do that, then you can truly be free from those people and events.