An Attittude of Gratitude

I have heard many, many times in the last few decades, the admonition to develop an Attitude of Gratitude. This simple and easily remembered phrase is based on the simple notion that my glass is really half-full, not half-empty, and that there is much more in life to be thankful about than there is to complain about. Well, that simple phrase just took an exponential quantum leap in importance for me.....

I just read about the 21-day challenge, developed by Reverend Will Bowen. And while there is certainly religious and spiritual overtones and purpose behind the challenge, there is something completely human about it as well. The 21-day challenge of Reverend Bowen asks humans to simply stop complaining for 21 consecutive days.
Scientists and psychologists have long held that it takes the human mind (and body) 21 days to change, or create, a habit. I would expect, and the testimonies bear this out, that our human society in America (and most of the developed world) will take more than 21 days of non-complaining. In fact, results would say that it takes most folks 4-8 months to not complain for 21 consecutive days.

Most people will say that complaining is a normal human function. Reverend Bowen says: "Complaining should happen frequently; criticism and gossip, never. If we are honest with ourselves, life events that lead us to legitimately complain are exceedingly rare. To be a happy person who has mastered your thoughts and has begun creating your life by design, you need a very high threshold of what leads you to express grief, pain and discontent."

The premise is simply this: we are what we think. If we think frequently and freely in the negative, complaining openly (verbally or in writing, as in via emails), then we become negative, both in our own subconscious and in the minds of others. If that's true, then the opposite is true as well; if we become positive and express our positive thoughts, then we become positive.

Personally, I would think mankind would much prefer to be positive, and to think that we view ourselves and that others view us as positive. I would much prefer to think consistently with gratitude and appreciation and not with criticism and a "woe is me" belief system. And so, I'm taking the challenge, hoping to continue my personal transformation which seems to have been the purpose for 2009.

For more info, check out: http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/

Note: I could have written "oodles" about recent examples of me, and others, complaining, just to drive the point home. Instead, I think I'm learning to be a bit more brief in my writings - and my verbosity - which should yield less complaints!