start monday with gratitude

In the introduction, we already touched on viewing challenges, such as health challenges, as a gift, something to learn from and, therefore, something to be grateful for.

This week we're going to focus on more gifts that, before, we would have seen as curses.

What one challenge in your life can you now look back on with fresh eyes and express gratitude for?

If you've been practising gratitude every day and making it into a new, positive habit, what I'm asking you to do this week in your daily gratitude practise, might still feel like quite a stretch.

You might, therefore, be tempted, more than ever, to not express your daily gratitude in your journal. You might be tempted to take the week off…

However, I ask you to resist temptation and, rather, view it as an opportunity to take your gratitude practice to a new and wholesome level.

What I will be asking you to do this week in your gratitude practice, is something that many who've been practising gratitude for years have not even considered.

If you stick with me and persevere, however, I promise you, your attitude and your outlook will change, and you will become, not only more grateful, but also more resilient. Above all, you'll get to truly see, observe, and understand the true magnificent soul you are.

So today, I want you to think back to your childhood and a challenge you experienced; either a one-off challenge or one that was part of your daily life.

Look back on that challenge now with fresh eyes.

What did you learn as a result? How did you grow as a result? Are you able to see that challenge as a blessing now that you can view it differently?

For our gratitude practice today, I want us to return to the present day.

What challenges are present in your life today? And how do they compare in size, in significance, in impact compared to the challenge you focused on from your childhood yesterday?

As we grow, we learn. And as we learn, we grow. Therefore, the challenges you are experiencing in life right now should be bigger than those you experienced as a child. However, regardless of their size, their impact, or their significance, you can overcome them because they will teach you how to change, how to adapt and how to grow in order to overcome them.

If you were not capable of overcoming the challenges placed before you throughout your life, they wouldn’t be placed before you. They come when you are ready.

Can you appreciate that the challenges you face today are helping you grow, change, adapt, and become better?

Can you appreciate that if you were still addressing the same type and size of challenges from your childhood that it would mean you maybe haven’t grown enough?

Can you therefore express gratitude for the challenges you face today and how they mould you and help you grow into an even better person?

Yesterday in our gratitude practice, we focused on the present day. I want to invite you, today, to remember the very recent past and compare it with the present day.

Often when we look back to the past, even the recent past, we look back with rose-tinted spectacles. We often see the present as being more challenging than the past – after all we made it successfully through the past, but we haven’t yet made it through the present.

I want you to pick out the memory of a challenge from your recent past that, now when you look back on it, doesn’t seem as difficult or challenging as you thought it was when you were going through it at the time.

Then I want you to recall that challenge in as much detail as possible, as if you’re re-experiencing it.

Do you notice how many difficult parts of that challenge you had pushed to the back of your mind and forgotten until you go through the memory and recall it in detail?

Can you see how much you grew as a result of that challenge and that, at the time, it was a challenge, not a mere walk in the park as your memory might now try to trick you into thinking?

Express your gratitude for that challenge and how it helped you grow so you can take on more challenges today. And thank your memory for trying to keep you safe, trying to get you to forget the difficult parts of that challenge so, today, you are more open to facing a challenge head-on rather than run away from it because when you first looked back at your past challenge it didn’t look that bad.

Relationships never run smooth. There are always ups and downs.

Whether you choose to focus on a current relationship or a past relationship, whether you choose to focus on a romantic relationship or a relationship you have with a parent, child or sibling, today I invite you to think of a challenge you've experienced in that relationship.

What did you learn from the challenge? How did you grow?

Looking back now, can you see that it came into your reality to help you grow and become a better person? Can you now embrace its lessons?

This week's gratitude focus has been intense and I want to commend you for sticking with it. That took courage.

As a result, you'll have grown more than you can ever realise at the moment.

You'll notice that growth, you'll notice that resilience, you'll notice that change in perception, outlook and attitude when you're next faced with a challenge or difficulty. Because when you're next met with a challenge, you'll accept the challenge and what you can learn from it. You'll look at it with different eyes. And that's growth.

So today, although we're still focusing on the challenges and difficulties, we're going to lighten things a little.

Today I want you to think of a challenge (or challenges) that you've faced in the past which you now look back and smile about. Challenges that seemed like mountains at the time but now look like small molehills. Challenges which, if they came into your reality today, would no longer look or feel like challenges.

Even if you can only think of one, it will show you how much you've changed and grown over the last few days and how much more positive your attitude has become.

You're stronger than you've ever been. Celebrate that. Celebrate how far your gratitude practice has come in one week and just think how far you can now take it.

I was going to suggest we end this challenging week of gratitude practice with a celebration but then I realised that, by now, you'll probably be looking back at your posts and revelations this week and not view your experiences as challenging, rather you'll view them as blessings.

So, rather than celebrate a challenging week of gratitude practice, let's celebrate a week when our gratitude practice took off into the stratosphere.

Today I invite you to express gratitude for what you've experienced and learned as a result of your gratitude practice this week.