It is as well to remember, that what other people have, has no relevance in YOUR life, unless of course they decide to share it with you. DO NOT GET EMOTIONAL OR ENVIOUS ABOUT THINGS THAT CANNOT ALTER YOUR LIFE

This gratitude thing is really important, and I personally keep a gratitude book, each morning, I reflect on the previous day and thank the FORMLESS WONDER for everything that has happened. I do not limit my gratitude to physical things, I appreciate everything, the weather, friends, experiences in fact when you start looking there really is so much to be grateful for. Just as long as you look deep and really start appreciating what is happening to YOU.

That is the easy part of our GRATITUDE the next step is to be grateful in adversity, to really get everything out of being thankful, we must find a POSITIVE out of a NEGATIVE. When things are really on top of you, and you really feel as though the whole world is against you, SEARCH for a really positive lesson out of the situation. There is always one there, only sometimes it is well hidden. If you only learn not to do something again, that is a POSITIVE because it has educated you and made you a wiser person. If you look deep enough there is ALWAYS a POSITIVE. but sometimes we do not see it until years later, and then we have suffered the pain and anguish it can cause unnecessarily, It is so much if we can find it straight away and move on. That is the secret, if you cannot do anything to alter the situation the ONLY PERSON TO SUFFER IS YOU, if you don't MOVE ON [ Oh yes and also the people around you who you eventually alienate because of your constant moaning] The situation, is only BAD at that time, if you let it be, step back and check whether you will control the situation, or whether you let your emotional response take over. Please note that this exercise is NOT one that will come easily to many of you, but I assure you, that like anything the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Just make a commitment and turn it into a game, the moment that you start looking for the good in the situation, you will soften up your anxiety. You will also find that you are a much more pleasant person to be around.

This is a true story that I have literally just remembered as I was writing this and it explains in great detail the point we are discussing. I had a large second hand shop on a major intersection just outside London and one day there was an accident, a car had knocked a young lad off his bike. We ran out to see if we could help. The lad was lying on the road and he was covered in blood, all his clothes were torn, his bike was further up the road completely wrecked. Suddenly He jumped up and said "This is my lucky day! my brothers over there at the traffic lights, and he's got his pick up [ute] so he can take me AND my bike home. As I said, I have just remembered that, but it illustrates the different way that things can turn out, just by looking at the situation from a positive point of view.

THINGS ALWAYS TURN OUT BEST FOR THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE THE BEST OF THE WAY THINGS TURN OUT. If you make an immediate decision, that the situation is bad, you block off any space to consider the good. When things are really bad, we need to stand back and really search for the thing to be thankful for, and then we open up the new channels that help in the healing process.