Orlando Therapist Providing insight on Gratitude by Going Beyond the Boring Ole Gratitude List

We’re in the month of November, the ubiquitous month of gratitude. This is the time of year that we take a moment and give thanks for all the good fortune in our lives big and small. We’d all fare better to extend this attitude of gratitude throughout the year, but November is the month we seem to put it on blast (on social media, at least).

Gratitude with Some Attitude

Why gratitude with some attitude, you ask? Because I am going to challenge you to go (way) beyond the boring ole (yet, immensely beneficial) traditional gratitude list. Throughout this week, I’m going to challenge you, challenge you to stop some old behaviors, and then start some new ones. I’m going to challenge you to go deep into your darkest moments and find the ever so faint silver linings. And then, I am going to challenge you to rewrite your history from Victim to Hero. This is going to take a bit more elbow grease than simply listing the things that are obviously positive in your life. This type of endeavor insists on not an attitude of gratitude, but an attitude of fortitude.

A Grateful Heart is a Happy Heart

Acknowledging all the good in your life sets your mental frequency to positive. The more positive things you are aware of, the more positive things you will experience in your day to day. The opposite is also true. If you’re constantly ho humming about all the negative things in your life, you will be very tuned in to the things in your day-to-day that just don’t go your way. It really is that simple, y’all.

Think of the last time you went car shopping. Shopping for a Jeep Wrangler? Now all of a sudden you see them everywhere, blue ones, red ones, whites ones, parked ones. You see them passing you at traffic lights. Suddenly, they are everywhere! Same idea when it comes to the things you focus on in your life. Positive begets positive and negative begets negative. Be careful what you focus on, lest it will grow in your reality.

Gratitude Challenge

For this week, I am challenging you to a seven-day sulking sabbatical. For an entire week, no complaining. I am not saying you can’t express your difficult feelings, but you must do it in a way that you aren’t forming some attachment to “woe is me” or turning the event into a personal attack against you.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you lose your keys.

Here is sulking: “OMG! You aren’t going to believe what happened to me. I lost my keys. Why do bad things always happen to me? I just can’t seem to get ahead. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. I just can’t catch a break.” (This type of attitude will keep your eye on the all-things-bad-happen-to-me ball. Think Jeep Wrangler from above.)

Here is expressing, “I feel so frustrated because I lost my keys. I was late to work and that was embarrassing.” The focus here is on the feelings: frustrated and embarrassed. Acknowledge these difficult feelings of frustration and embarrassment. As humans, we all experience those emotions. It’s not personal. It sucks and it happens (to everyone).

Before beginning your challenge, remember that the more positive things you are aware of, the more positive things you will experience in your day to day, and that we are digging deep this November which means that we are letting go of the “woe is me” mentality and are finding our true gratefulness for what our life has brought us.

Good luck!

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Lauran is an anxiety and trauma therapist providing counseling in Orlando, FL. She also specializes in helping people heal old broken relationship patterns that keep them from finding, creating, and keeping healthy relationships with partners, friends, and family. Lauran uses a down to earth approach infused with cutting-edge therapies that go beyond traditional talking to help clients feel calm in their body and mind and find peace within themselves.