Latest / Dits & Dahs / gratitude balances out anxiety
Transcript
- Sue: In the four and a half years since I've become a widow, I've gone through a lot of s introspection on my own. And it started immediately after his death because that void wasn't easily fillable and I was destitute, so I had plenty of time to be thinking big things and processing my emotions or whatever you want to call it. And one of the things that I started to do was not focus on what I didn't have or needed in terms of putting some thinking towards it of how do I get such and such money coming in to pay this bill. That's a reality that everybody has to face. No, it was more about not thinking on the loss of my husband in a negative way, like it was creating a vacuum for me. People do think that way, and I'm not making a judgment, but for me what I recognized was that I started to make a list of everything that I was grateful to have. And in this situation I was very grateful to be living in a home that is paid for. It was one of our saving graces when we became destitute. And I went through all of the things that in my life would permit me to eat. Having long shelf life foods stored for about I don't know, well automatically doubled when my husband died because it meant I could eat his portion. So I probably had a good six to eight months worth of MREs and rice and beans that if I needed to survive on, it was there for me. And one by one I went through all of the things that day to day I just started to express gratitude. And I know it sounds really mundane and perhaps it is, but I I express gratitude for having air in my life. So when I when I burp, I express gratitude for that. Everything. Walking outside, no matter what the weather is, I'm very grateful to have air in my lungs to enjoy that experience. And I don't mean to make it sound sacrine, I mean it to understand the perspective of once you bring gratitude into your life and the thoughts and the things that you say in the course of your day, there's no room for anxiety. It pushes anxiety out of your life. Gratitude balances anxiety. And if you're meaningful about committing to Giving yourself a whole lot of gratitude, even if you're just thinking it as you're seeing something or smelling something. But I find is really good when you speak out loud. And if you do that, you come to a place where you have created this natural quiet, calm and serenity around you. Is give you enough of a bubble around you that it's easier to deal with other people who are less grateful. And when you spot those around you that really seem to be filled with anxiety, you then have a better place to decide if you wish to continue that relationship with that person, being in control of you. When you are in a place where you get comfortable with your life. Sometimes I call it running on tickover, where, you know, you've got a set amount of money coming in steadily, you're you live in the house that you wanna putting your head down at night, you're eating the food you want to eat, drinking the booze you want to drink, whatever it is, right? That you get comfortable. It's happening on a regular basis. There's no need. Yeah, you go on vacations and you have just a but otherwise very comfortable existence. Well you that is the time when dark energies, diabolic, demonic, negative energies, can come into your energy without you noticing. Because You got all your boundaries wide open. Why should you feel like you have them closed? Because you're comfortable, hey, right? And then things start to get wobbly and the anxiety starts to ratchet up again. Because remember, it's a cycle until you devote yourself to you controlling you by expressing gratitude. I'm emphatic about it because it's made a positive difference in my life, and I believe very strongly that it's no different for anybody else who chooses to do the same. Life to me has become something that even as mundane as my day-to-day life is and as in some ways it's become more comfortable because of the fact that I express gratitude. I'm not making the money that I used to. So I know how fragile my existence day to day can be. But nonetheless, I have to enjoy my life because this is what we have. If it goes to the past, I can't fix it from the back end. I can only appreciate and be aware. Of what I'm experiencing as I'm experiencing it to enjoy my life and live it to the best that I'm able. And as a human I think that's important. As a soul, I think it's just the life lessons that we have to learn. And so we're in this place now where as meager as my finances may be, much better than others, but not I'm not judging or comparing. I'm just making the comment that my life has improved tremendously over the last few years from where I was at the time of my husband's death. I'm grateful for it, and I think it's worth sharing that something as simple as acknowledging the good things that are going on in your life with a simple thank you starts as a catalyst to calm you down and help rid of the anxiety. Because amongst that, peace and serenity are the solutions for the things that were allowed to create anxiety for you because you were comfortable in not solving the problem. You'll come to a place where once you recognize that Those around you aren't grateful, you must walk away from them, because otherwise you betray yourself. And it's not about telling somebody that they have to be something they're not. It's no, it's simply the recognition of saying, Ooh, that person doesn't serve my life at all well. I must leave the premise. These are all personal journeys that Everyone has to decide to take when it comes their time to think about such things. Giving it to somebody as advice is not the way to go ever. And I'm not presuming that here, I'm just sharing the fact that when I realized how important gratitude and the expression of it is, to help keeping me peaceful and calm and anxiety free, it's worked for me. I think in some cases other humans will benefit from it as well. Because after all, you control you. You shouldn't be letting others control you. That's a crime, actually. So if you can get yourself out of that situation on your own all the better. And if it starts with changing your mindset, take stock of all that anxiety you feel and replace it with gratitude. It's gonna give you the solutions that you need, confirmation with my watch, to walk away and know that you did the right thing. In the end, you control you. Thanks for listening.