Lessons Learned in Gratitude
Gratitude Challenge - Week 50 - Lessons Learned This Year
I am two weeks away from completing my 52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge. As I reflect on the past 50 weeks, I find that the little changes I made to accommodate a lifestyle of gratitude culminated in a much larger lifestyle change, extending beyond merely stating my thanksgiving.
As a self-proclaimed realist, I always tried to look on the bright side, but maintained a wary attitude toward full-blown optimism. To me, it seemed that optimism led to disappointment. To my friends, realism was often thought to be synonymous with pessimism (although, of course, I never saw it that way).
Throughout this gratitude challenge, I have found that gratitude inevitably leads to optimism. Not a naive, blind optimism, but a lifestyle of positivity in which I am grateful for everything, even the setbacks and disappointments. Realism accepts the pitfalls of life as they come, and optimism hopes to avoid those pitfalls, but gratitude blends the two into a combination of hope and acceptance.
Simultaneously, my pursuit of gratitude led to another development. As a human being, I continuously struggle with judging others. It is something I work on every single day. Before adopting a lifestyle of gratitude, I used to try to shove judgemental thoughts out of my mind, focusing on an entirely different subject. That is difficult to do and even more difficult to maintain. Now, I replace judgement with grateful thoughts.
For example, if a friend and I argue, I try to think of all the good qualities of that person that I am grateful for, all the things he or she does for me. This alleviates a great deal of my anger, allowing me to forgive and be forgiven, rather than holding a poisonous grudge.
In turn, gratitude leads to the development of cyclical optimism. When other people are grateful, it is contagious. This challenge has caused me to be more vocal about my thanksgiving. I am so blessed, I can never say the words "thank you" enough.
Nearly a year later, I have abandoned realism for an attitude of gratitude. And, I think this leads to the best kind of optimism.
As a self-proclaimed realist, I always tried to look on the bright side, but maintained a wary attitude toward full-blown optimism. To me, it seemed that optimism led to disappointment. To my friends, realism was often thought to be synonymous with pessimism (although, of course, I never saw it that way).
Throughout this gratitude challenge, I have found that gratitude inevitably leads to optimism. Not a naive, blind optimism, but a lifestyle of positivity in which I am grateful for everything, even the setbacks and disappointments. Realism accepts the pitfalls of life as they come, and optimism hopes to avoid those pitfalls, but gratitude blends the two into a combination of hope and acceptance.
Simultaneously, my pursuit of gratitude led to another development. As a human being, I continuously struggle with judging others. It is something I work on every single day. Before adopting a lifestyle of gratitude, I used to try to shove judgemental thoughts out of my mind, focusing on an entirely different subject. That is difficult to do and even more difficult to maintain. Now, I replace judgement with grateful thoughts.
For example, if a friend and I argue, I try to think of all the good qualities of that person that I am grateful for, all the things he or she does for me. This alleviates a great deal of my anger, allowing me to forgive and be forgiven, rather than holding a poisonous grudge.
In turn, gratitude leads to the development of cyclical optimism. When other people are grateful, it is contagious. This challenge has caused me to be more vocal about my thanksgiving. I am so blessed, I can never say the words "thank you" enough.
Nearly a year later, I have abandoned realism for an attitude of gratitude. And, I think this leads to the best kind of optimism.
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