start monday with gratitude

Today I’m going to challenge you.

Today I’m inviting you to go back in time, it can be at any age, to a memory when you felt that life was against you, that it was out to get you; a time when you thought “why me?”.

It may be painful to relive that memory, but please stick with it.

Remember and re-experience it in as much detail as possible.

Now look at what you gained through that negative experience.

What positive lessons did it teach you?

What blessings came onto your path and into your life as a result of it?

How did you grow stronger and become better as a result of that experience?

Can you see the difference between viewing a challenge from a negative perspective such as “why me?” to a viewing it from a positive perspective such as “what did I learn as a result?”

Our aim in this lifetime is to become a better person, a person more in alignment with natural world around us.

In order for us to become so, we need to learn, we need to change, and we need to grow and develop.

Go back to the memory from yesterday, the challenge in your life.

Imagine it hadn’t happened.

Imagine if your life hadn’t changed as a result of all you experienced and learned from that challenge.

How would your life look today if that challenge hadn’t shaped and moulded you into the person you are today?

There are always lessons to be learned in life, experiences that help us to grow.

We can see those experiences as either positive when life feels good, or we can see them as negative when there are a few bumps appearing in the road.

Think of a time in your life when life seemed to flow, when life felt easy, a time you would deem to be positive.

How much did you grow and learn through that positive experience?

How much did you change as a result?

How did it help mould you into the person you are today?

Now look at a time in your life when life was a struggle, when you felt like you were paddling upstream and not getting anywhere, a time you would deem to be negative and challenging.

How much did you grow and learn through that negative and challenging experience?

How much did you change as a result?

How did it help mould you into the person you are today?

Can you see that both experiences helped you to grow and learn, moulded and shaped you into the person you are today?

Perhaps one experience taught you more than the other. However, can you now see that something positive and good arose as a result of both the seemingly positive and the seemingly negative and challenging experiences?

Without both positive and negative/challenging experiences, you will not grow, you will not learn, you will not change.

Can you now, going forward, more positively embrace and accept the challenges in your life and be grateful for all they teach you?

Again, think of a big challenge presented to you in your life. It can be something recent or in the past.

Focus on the first memory of a challenge that comes to your mind.

Now return your focus to the present day. You’re here, right? You survived all the challenges and obstacles that have come onto your path, right? And no doubt, as a result of them, you are a stronger person.

Yes, you have picked up some bumps and bruises along the way. You may not have made it through a challenge totally unscathed.

But you made it.

You’re here.

You survived.

Isn’t that something to be grateful for? That the challenges that you have experienced in your life have been challenges you could work through?

You were strong enough to tackle them.

You were and are smart enough to work through them.

Might it be that life considers you special enough, important enough, valuable enough, capable enough, and strong enough to be given the opportunity and honour to become a better human being through the challenges set before you?

Give thanks and express gratitude for the honour that life has bestowed on you through these challenges.

In today’s exercise I want you to both ignore and embrace everything you have experienced this week, so far.

Sitting in the present moment, I invite you to close your eyes.

I invite you to imagine a future where you don’t know what lies in wait for you and that, because you don’t know, you feel terrified to step into tomorrow.

How does that feel in your body?

Try to tune into where you feel it in your body.

Sit with that feeling, those sensations for a little while.

And then I invite you to imagine a future where you don’t know what lies in wait for you and that, because you know you’ve survived every challenge you’ve experienced to date, you feel excited about what tomorrow holds.

How does that feel in your body?

Try to tune into where you feel it in your body.

Sit with that feeling, those sensations for a little while.

Now compare how you felt when you were scared about what the future held with how you felt when you felt excited about what the future held.

Which feelings and sensations were more enjoyable for you?

Wouldn’t you want to face the future carrying those feelings and sensations with you?

When you appreciate the positive side of challenges, when you can look to the future without fear, then you can truly express gratitude, from your heart, for all the challenges you have experienced to date and all the challenges that lie ahead of you.

Knowing what you now know having worked through this week’s exercises.

Knowing that you have survived every challenge placed in your path.

Knowing that those challenges have made you stronger and better, have moulded you into the person you are today, are you able to face the future and whatever tomorrow will bring with an air of confidence and positivity?

Will you now look at challenges in a different light and be grateful that life has placed them in you path to help you grow, learn, develop and because life has confidence in your abilities?

Look forward to all new challenges set before you and see them as invitations to grow and become stronger.

Will you, today, give thanks and express gratitude for the challenges that will come onto your path in the future?

When you can face the future positively, knowing that you are strong enough and capable enough to take on the challenges that lie ahead of you. How do you feel?

Do you feel confident?

Do you feel calm?

Do you feel at peace?

Do you feel a quiet joy about what’s to come?

No longer do you need to worry and fret about what’s to come.

No longer do you need to panic about what lies ahead.

Rather you can embrace, with calmness, all the lessons, all the invitations that you know life will have for you that will help transform you.

And when you can live at peace with the future, your mind will better focus on the present, your life shall become more mindful, and you will feel more grateful for the opportunities that lie ahead.