Thankful for things…

The month of November is almost over and it has been full of things for which we can be thankful.  Facebook has been full of people giving thanks each day and there are various things floating across the internet about being thankful.  The super storm, Hurricane Sandy has blown through a large portion of the northeast leaving destruction in her wake.  World wide 1 of every 6 people are starving or suffering from a related illness.  (numanainc.com).  For the most part, we in America have much for which to be thankful.  But everything is relative.  Each day most of us face some sort of difficulty or struggle.  Even on our best day, we may see or interact with someone who is in need or struggling.  While, for the most part, we aren’t starving or living in deplorable conditions there is much need and it’s hard  to some days to be thankful. 

Being thankful sounds so simple but really, it seems that most people miss it.  They dwell on the negative and focus on the difficulty.  I call it polishing the problem.  We sit around and talk about how much of a mess something is or how crappy the situation is.  Ironically, despite all the polishing of problems we each reply with, “I’m fine.” when we are asked if we are ok.  Strangely, it is ok to say everything is crappy but it’s not ok to say that we actually feel crappy.  We feel it but can’t say it or share it.  Deep inside we feel horrible and then we polish the problem with our friends, family and peers but deny how it is impacting us.  This my friends is weird and wrong.  It’s wrong for two reasons.  The first is that, of course, we should be able to share our true feelings with our true friends with damn near anyone!  The second, is that none of us should be spending time polishing the problem.  We can dissect the problem in order to find a solution but as soon as we lose focus and resort to pointless polishing we are lost.

One of the true secrets of life is staying focused on the positives; finding the small things that are good or at least moderately ok in life. Some days it’s tough, we are drawn to polish. We have to work hard to train our brains to look for it. Building the habit of finding the good in the moment, the day or the week.  Surrounding ourselves with people who are our friends and who are actually supportive of us.  We need to laugh in difficulty.  When we are focused on the positives, everything seems more doable.  Our minds are more open to new ideas and we are more creative in our problem solving.  Our minds begin to believe that there is a solution or that things aren’t as bad as they could be or that everything happens for a reason and we are learning, growing and gaining even in our loss or difficulty.  Bottom line, with thankfulness and positives we have power.  The power to keep going and to come out on top.

So.  There you have it.  Straight out of my brain, virtually unedited thoughts on positivity and thankfulness.  You know me, never an opinion or thought.  Stay positive my friends!  Find the thing you are thankful for right now, grab on and keep going!

Beautiful Northeast Kansas …