The annual week of gratitude is upon us.
It is always a great reminder to take time and be thankful for the blessings in our life because we really do have an abundance of them!
What about being thankful for the crappy things in life?
How often do you do that?
You might be thinking, “What? Why would I be thankful for being awake for an hour in the middle of the night?” or “Why would I be thankful that some person stole all the trailer keys out of the truck the night before I needed the trailer?” or “Why would I be thankful for the sickness, dysfunction, or disease I have?”
Ah ha! Because, young grasshopper, this is when we learn and grow.
It is only in our thankfulness for the crappy things that we can become aware of how those moments allow us to grow.
When we are thankful, we melt the walls of anger and defensiveness that keep us bound and prevent us from learning. With gratitude, we move into a physiological state of parasympathetic ease. It is in the parasympathetic state where we can detach from the emotion of the crappy situation and, if we choose, gain a bigger understanding of what we can learn from this situation so we can move forward in our journey to become a more authentically empowered human being.
So during this annual time of gratitude,
I challenge you to be grateful, not only for the amazing things in your life, but also for the crappy things in your life.
This way, you have the opportunity to learn from those crappy experiences and create a more beautiful life for yourself. Because you deserve it.