By March Twisdale
Gratitude and appreciation are super powers. They can change our outlook on anything and everything in a heartbeat, without the participation or agreement of any other natural force on Earth, including other people.
And yet, how often do we use these great life skills? In our own lives, for our own benefit, and as parents, being upfront and speaking openly as we model their use in front of our children? Or with our friends, when they are feeling down and despondent?
How often do we start off from the place of recognizing all we have to feel gratitude for, the blessings in our lives already? Imagine if one’s New Year’s Resolution was grounded in appreciation of the great things already in our lives, first and foremost. From there, we could ask ourselves, “What do I resolve to do more of in the year to come?”
Years ago, I came across a lovely poster titled, “Attitude.” This is the primary key unlocking our superpowers of gratitude and appreciation. To be grateful or to feel appreciation is a choice that our attitude either nurtures and allows or rejects and prevents.
It is my belief that by unlocking Gratitude and Appreciation with the key of Attitude we are best able to form amazing Resolutions as we head into the New Year. These three superpowers place us in reality, and it is only from that point of clarity that we can form plans likely to take us where we need to go.
And, because life isn’t always a bed of roses, how do Gratitude, Appreciation, and Attitude help us when facing the hardships, struggles, fears, and disappointments of life? They help us by creating clarity.
Identifying the possibility for success of our next step is a greatly positive thing to do. It’s not cynical. Grounding our goals in reality prevents wasted effort and disappointment. For example, I can’t survive a deadly lost-at-sea scenario right now because I’m sitting at my desk, typing this article. It sounds absurd, but it’s just as absurd to expect to attain instant, true, delighted happiness if, first and foremost, what I really need is to have a good cry. But, I can find my swimsuit and head to the gym (if they’re open), and I can let my emotions move through me, alone or on a call with a good friend, knowing I will feel better afterwards.
Gratitude and the experience of appreciation are not magical, nor are they “make me instantly happy” pills. They are reality-grounding practices, bringing us into closer alignment with our honest truths, clearing away the fog, and allowing us to see both near and far. In this way, we can look into the many distances, determine where we hope to end up, and then we can look down, at the firmament beneath our feet, and see upon which we stand. A cliff? A never-ending desert? Or perhaps we stand in the thick, deep and sucking mud of the tidelands, and the only way we’re going to get out before the water rises to drown us is with the help of other people.
All of those situations I described are perilous, are they not? And, with a despairing attitude, we are stuck. But, with an attitude that seeks what we can be grateful and appreciative for, we discover that a close friend has tied a rope around our hips and is ready to belay us down the sheer cliffside. In the desert, we see not-too-distant palm fronds waving in the wind to the north, suggesting that water and survival lies in that direction. And, after yanking futilely at our legs and stuck boots, we pause long enough to stand tall and search the horizon, allowing us to wave wildly at distant clam-diggers who go from thinking we were just another clam-digger having a good day to realizing – we’re in distress and we need help.
My point being, life is what it is right now at this moment. Period. We are here, where we are, and there are blessings we may be missing. By using our superpowers of gratitude and appreciation, we are better able to comprehend the totality of our current reality, allowing us to set goals with a good chance of succeeding! Such as the hopes and wishes many of us are considering as we step into the New Year.
With love and best wishes for everyone’s New Year,
March
