5 Ways Gratitude Can Turn Your Bad Situation Around
Gratitude has the power to get you through difficult times and turn your life around. It can motivate you to keep reaching for your goals by constantly placing what you have already accomplished right in front of you. This is why you are always told to learn to master thankfulness and nurture a grateful mindset.
Eighteen years ago, my marriage of 34 years broke down and ended in divorce. I was devastated. How could I manage on my own? How could I support myself? How could I ever be happy again? I felt so many emotions – guilt, shame, rejection, overwhelm, fear – just to name a few. How could I ever get out of this black hole? I didn’t know where to begin.
So, one day a few months later, I was meditating, a practice I have been doing daily for many, many years, when this thought popped into my mind. “There is so much to be thankful for. You have 4 amazing children, 2 beautiful granddaughters, your health, a roof over your head, a great career as a midwife, food on your table, wonderful friends, just for starters. There is a way out of this. You will try and figure it out.” I started to feel a sense of relief. “I may have lost my marriage but I still have the strength to work and rebuild a new life,” Just like that, I broke free from the chains that were holding me in the past, looked to what I wanted in the future, and started to live my life in the present, knowing this is the only moment I have complete control over. Gratitude became my new way of life, as I started to see the new doors that were opening in front of me.
One thing that enabled me to turn this bad situation around was creating an attitude of gratitude, shifting my focus from the pain of my marriage breakup to future I was free to create just for me.
Thankfulness turns your unfortunate situation around by:
- Shifting your focus.
The worst thing about hard times is erasing them from your mind or finding ways of concentrating on something else. You can’t help but focus on how horrible your situation is and unintentionally think about how everything went wrong. Nonetheless, shifting your focus is possible if you maintain gratitude in trying times. Phrases like “I am still standing” “I have survived the worst” and “I still have so and so or such and such” will get you through tough times.
- Encouraging positive emotions.
Gratitude gives birth to positive thoughts. Positive thinking is the key to positive emotions because what you think determines how you act, react, respond, or feel. Mastering thankfulness gives birth to positive emotions which keep you focused on “I am strong enough” and “I can fix that.” Therefore, understand that turning your situation around is possible only when you feel you can.
- Eliminating your fears.
Gratefulness encourages you to concentrate on your ability to turn things around thereby eliminating your fears. Appreciating what you have accomplished and what you can still accomplish helps you notice that you have the chance to turn things around. So, use gratitude to overcome your fears.
- Emphasizing your strong points.
Paying attention to what you can do when you are in a crisis is the only way of seeing things from a different perspective and changing what you don’t like. If you focus on “I am good at ABC” and “I can use this skill to effect change” you will move your life in the right direction and see the changes you are longing for.
- Imparting a strong sense of worth.
One thing that makes you realize your sense of worth is having someone show you how much they value you when you are at your lowest point. To have someone do the unexpected for you reminds you that there are people out there who care about your welfare and that alone gets you going.
Appreciating that your life is not what it used to be because of something that someone did for you when you weren’t expecting or when you were not deserving fixes your mind on a thousand things to be grateful for.
Anything is possible when thankfulness becomes the center of your life. For instance, overcoming negative thoughts, controlling your emotions, getting back up, as well as turning your life around.
If you want help seeing life differently and developing an attitude of gratitude, download my FREE Gratitude Tool HERE
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