It’s week 2 of the Choose Love Awareness Month. This week we’re focusing on gratitude, the second character value in the formula for Choosing Love. We know that we need courage to be grateful when things aren’t going our way. This is EXACTLY WHEN we need gratitude to strengthen our thoughts and mindset to feel better about ourselves, and our ability to manage the situation.
Gratitude fortifies us from the inside out to better be able to handle difficult situations with more strength and grace. When we think of something we’re grateful for, these positive thoughts ripple out to our feelings, that then ripple out to create positive actions!
Here’s another interesting thing about the ripple effect: you can’t stop it. One you throw a stone into a pond, you can’t do anything to stop the ripple, it just keeps going and going. Think about how you start a ripple effect: with a thought, that becomes an action. We can change our thoughts, but once it turns into words or actions, those reverberate and keep going. This is why we have to pause in the Choice Moment, between what’s happening, and our response, to think about what kind of ripple we’re going to create.
If it’s a negative ripple, of hurt, anger, resentment, or any negativity, once we throw the stone, once we says the words, or do the action, there’s no stopping the ripple.
However, if the word or action you’re choosing is loving, kind, generous, or caring, that ripple can’t be stopped either.
Visualize once again throwing a little rubber duck into the pond that represents gratitude in our thoughts. When we think of what we’re grateful for, it shifts our focus to positive, and this creates a ripple effect of more positive thoughts, that then impacts how we’re feeling. This, in turn, determines what we say, and how we behave! When we think loving thoughts, we feel good, and this reflects outwardly in how we show up, and treat other people. So when we’re grateful, it sets off ripples that benefit us in how we feel, and also continue to spread to others, who in turn feel grateful and want to share that good feeling with others, and so on and so on!
Being grateful helps us feel better when we’re sad and lonely! We’re happier, have better moods, and a greater satisfaction with life. My favorite thing about gratitude is that it’s a choice! Yeah, we CHOOSE to be grateful. Even in the toughest of times, when everything seems like it’s against us and nothing seems to be going right. when our thoughts are telling us we’re not good enough, or we’re feeling down, we can pause in our Choice Moment, between what is happening and our response, and GET CURIOUS about what we have to be grateful for.
There’s always something to be grateful for. I’m grateful for you, each and every one of you listening right now. I’m sending a ripple of love to you! Now, if you will think of something that you’re grateful for, we will start the biggest ripple effect that will go from us, first back to us because what we put out there comes right back to us, then it ripples out to others, person to person, around the world. Because, after all, all of the “Nurturing Healing Love” we give out, we get back, in ripples, and this helps and heals us. We have the power to hurt, and heal!
“Have a Lot of fun” focusing on gratitude this week, specifically on how it makes us feel, as well as how it brightens the lives of others through the ripple effect this week and going forward!
