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Today's
Meditation:
As much as I don't like to admit it, I'm a person who
needs constant reminders. When I appreciate
something, it's easy for me to take that something for
granted because I simply forget how much I appreciate
it. When someone does something kind for me, I often
forget it when tomorrow becomes today and a new set of
challenges and experiences arises. When I do remind
myself that there are things in my life for which I'm
grateful, then I recognize how rich my life is, even when
there are other things that are threatening to bring me
down.
When we work on changing our perspective to a more
positive outlook, then we can get a much more accurate
idea of what's going right in our lives. We tend to
focus so long and so hard on the bad things that a dose of
reality each night in the form of a simple list can do
wonders to help us to realize just how many positive
aspects of our lives we do, indeed, have.
What Oprah is suggesting is an active exercise to
counteract the passive approach that we so often slip
into. We can just let life happen and then move by
without even noticing what went on if we're not
careful. If we're not active in our own lives, then
we're not really living-- we're just existing; life,
though, rewards action, and our perspectives can grow only
if we actively exercise and expand them.
When we change our perspective on our todays, our
perspective on our life as a whole begins to shift.
After all, our lives are made up of a series of todays,
and each today is made up of a series of moments.
What we bring to those moments through our perspective is
just as important as what actually happens in each moment,
as our perspective affects our attitudes and our ability
to learn and grow. It's well worth it to begin some
sort of active exercise, and focusing on gratitude is
definitely a good place to start.
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Questions to consider:
What kinds of things do you have in your life today for
which you can be grateful if you choose to be?
How many positive things slip by us without our
acknowledgment that they are, indeed, things for which to
be grateful?
Why do so few of us take an active approach to our lives?
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