Gratitude Attitude

The I shared a technique on how to bring gratitude into your life. This is an important tool to combat any illness, be it emotional or physical. 

The act of being truly thankful (not just saying the words, but feeling it in your heart) will change your body chemistry balance towards health. This blog tallks about bringing a change to your attitude in what we call a gratitude attitude.

Use it or loose it applies to this balance. Our brains are set up in a pathways that accommodate the chemistry we are feeling in our body. You feel depressed one day while your life is filled with happiness the brain pathways are set to happiness. The brain will bring you back more quickly because that is our basic way of your being. If day in and day out we are feeling depressed the brain will have those pathways as the standard pattern. It is very difficult to change the existing pattern, but with conscious effort we can start building the new pathways.

The key to changing the chemistry and building your life towards happiness is to practice. Bring to mind a memory which you are grateful for, somthing you consider a happy memory. It can be anything such as opening a present you always wanted to the first time you kissed someone or time with your favorite pet. By doing this you are expressing the gratitude towards the memory. Allow yourself to feel that memory in your whole body for 30 seconds. This happy chemistry will normally stay in your body for 30 minutes and gradually fade.

Find just three to five memories and write them down on the back of a business card, tape it to places you frequent such as to your computer screen or to your car's dashboard. Everytime you see the card pick one memroy to reflect upon.

In order to build up the pathways you need to recall happy memories several times throughout the day. If you can set an alarm for every 30 minutes that is optimal, but if you can’t do that tag it to something you do several times during the day such as eating or going to the bathroom or every time you pass through a door. The point is the more often you are able to do it the more it will become programmed into your mind.

You can be thankful for bad things in your life because the bad may actually be good. There is an old story of a farmer and his son where the farmer’s horse died and the neighbors said, “Oh, what bad luck." The farmer in his wisdom says, “I don’t know if it is bad luck or good luck, it just is.”  

Then the son joined the father to go plow the field without the horse. In the process he breaks his leg and the neighbors said “What bad luck." The farmer in his wisdom says “I don’t know if it is bad luck or good luck, it just is.” Then the army comes through taking away all the able-bodied men but leaves the son because of the broken leg and the neighbors say, "Oh what good luck." The farmer in his wisdom says “I don’t know if it is bad luck or good luck, it just is.”

We do not know when something happens if it really is for good or bad. It just is part of life. If we thank God for the life we have, then we thank God for all the life. I had a day recently that was particularly tough. Tough enough to make me growl in frustration at one point. At that point I laughed and thanked God for getting me to that point as well as thanking him that a day like that one only comes around one every few decades. Then I was able to thank God for the gift of specific situation to remind me that life is usually easy.

I hope this blog helps provides some perspective and you are able to reach a new degree of happiness using the visualization tool provided. Feel free to report any insights as comments.

Linda Bender is a metaphysical doctor trained as a medical intuitive. She uses over 20 life coaching and touch therapy techniques from Reiki to personal training to help you reduce stress and pain so your body invokes its natural healing ability. She is at on Church Street in Phoenixville. See www.BenderHealing.com or call 800-706-1354 for more information.