GRATITUDE ATTITUDE

There was a big storm last week that caused a power failure and flash flood in our neighborhood. The power failure shut our sump pump down during the flood. The result was a flooded basement. To put things in perspective, our basement is our den. It is a play area for the children, the location of our television, laundry room, storage, 2^nd washroom, furnace and all the children’s toys. Anything that came in contact with the flood water was deemed contaminated to second degree and had to be removed from the basement. This includes the baseboards, dry wall, flooring, furniture, toys, bookshelves, entertainment unit and electronics. Fortunately all the damage and contents are covered by insurance.

When events like this occur it is very easy to focus on what we don’t have. “I don’t have use of my basement, the television”, etc. This is a focus on scarcity, what we don’t have. Brene Brown qualifies a scarcity attitude as one where we don’t have enough. In our case it would be easy to get caught up in not having enough space, enough television to watch, enough toys to play with, you get the picture. This event gave me and the family an excellent opportunity to practice our “Gratitude Attitude” where we focus on what we are grateful for. We are grateful for having two dry floors to live on, our bedrooms and all their contents, our kitchen, our air conditioning and most of all our health and being together as a family for support.

A“scarcity attitude” can lead to a slippery slope of going from I don’t have enough stuff, to I don’t have enough time, I don’t have enough money. Finally the slope gets more pitch as we can start to believe that we are not enough. This is where shame lives and it deteriorates to “I’m not pretty enough, not skinny enough, not smart enough. A “gratitude attitude” puts us in a place where we appreciate and are grateful for what we do have, who we are and what we have achieved each day. We’re grateful for the resources (money, time) to achieve the things we were able to do and understand that everything else will just have to wait. You’re grateful for who you are and what you’ve been able to achieve. You may still want to strive for self-improvement, self-actualization and other forms growth, but most important we always believe that we are enough.

Finally it’s one thing to have a “gratitude attitude”, but the attitude on it’s own is only rhetoric without practice. Practice means actually living out that attitude daily. Brene Brown offers some awesome suggestions for practicing your gratitude attitude in the absence of basement floods. I have a gratitude journal, got the idea from Oprah Winfrey 10 or 15 years ago. Every night before I go to bed I make a list of 3 things for which I am grateful. We even have our kids practicing gratitude when they say their prayers at night, but saying 3 things for which they are grateful. Other ideas are creating a gratitude jar, where each day you write a small note of things for which you are grateful and keep them in the jar.

 

MOVE!