Gratitude

“Through practice, I’ve come to see that the deepest source of my misery is not wanting things to be the way they are. Not wanting myself to be the way I am. Not wanting the world to be the way it is. Not wanting others to be the way they are. Whenever I’m suffering, I find this war with reality to be at the heart of the problem.”  ~ Stephen Cope

Is this something that you can relate to?  This definitely hit home for me.  Sometimes the greatest cause of suffering is how we look at things (our own perception).  Do we look at our bodies as things that need to be fixed, made thinner, whipped into shape or do we see them as vehicles for attaining our dreams or experiencing sensory pleasure in the surrounding world or with others?  Do we look at our relationships and see all that is wrong or missing, or all the ways that they support and nourish our lives?  Do you look at where you are in this moment in your life and feel gratitude for everything that you have or do you only see lack - what you don't have?  

How we look at our lives and everything in it has a tremendous impact on our emotional state or level of suffering.

A wonderfully effective and simple exercise that you can do everyday to help you shift how you are feeling and lift your spirits is to take a moment to either meditate on or write down 10 things that you are grateful for, or take a walk in the woods and listen to the world around you.
  

It's incredible how just shifting our perspective can change the way our day unfolds.