Reprogramming The Mind For Success

That’s a great question.

“I am grateful for this happening to me because it means I can now feel this.”
“I am grateful this didn’t happen to me because now I won’t have to feel that.”

Does this sound like the definition of gratitude to you? Basically if you are grateful for something it means you are thankful.

Someone once told me after watching the movie ‘The Secret’ that they didn’t understand the concept of gratitude as it was explained in the movie, saying that it was difficult to understand how one should be grateful all the time when the majority or many of the daily occurrences are either negative or neutral. Negative or neutral events should not require gratitude because they are unwanted or undesirable events.

I am not going to say that my answer is the complete picture or complete answer, but the following is my take, and if it means anything to you, all the better. Afterwards, you can download a free short book by Apryl Jensen with her take on gratitude which I think you’ll enjoy.

To me gratitude is the acknowledgement to the universe, the world, yourself, whoever; it doesn’t matter, but acknowledgement that you are the sole creator of all events and circumstances that occur to you, whether you deem them as positive, negative or neutral.

When you acknowledge that every event and circumstance that is occurring to you is your creation then you are not displaying gratitude for the actual event but you are being grateful for having the power to create that event, whether it feels good, bad or neutral.

However, if you are of the school of thought that you are not the creator of all that occurs to you and around you, it is basically impossible for you to be grateful for anything unless it is something you want or desire.

Just imagine for a minute that it was the truth, that you are the sole creator of every single event and circumstance in your life. Now remove all the emotions and judgments attached to any outcome and just think of the actual outcome itself as if it had been a process or creation that started somewhere and ended with that outcome. Now imagine that you are the architect of that creation.

For me, knowing I am the creator of all is what I am grateful for, not the outcome itself; and if I create something that I then judge as bad I see it as an opportunity to examine my current beliefs, for it is my beliefs that influence my creations.

I understand that removing judgments from an event is difficult, but I will leave you with this following story; and don’t forget to download the short book by Apryl at the end of this post.

A farmer had a horse that one day ran off. After hearing the news, the neighbor came to condole over the loss. The farmer replied “What makes you think it is so terrible?”

A short while later the horse came back, bringing with it a small group of wild horses. After hearing the news the neighbor came to congratulate the farmer. The farmer replied “What makes you think this is so good?”

Not long after, while riding one of the wild horses the farmer’s son was thrown from the horse breaking his leg. After hearing the news, the neighbor came to condole over the incident. The farmer replied “What makes you think this is so bad?”

While the boy was recovering a war broke out, and all able-bodied men were conscripted. Seeing the boy’s broken leg the army left without him.

Here is Apryl Jensen’s short book on gratitude:

http://www.reprogrammingthemind.com/gratitude.pdf

To your success

Dean