Why Gratitude is NOT BS

Why Gratitude is NOT Sentimental, Airy Fairy, Woo Woo, PollyAnna BS…

I’ve said this before in other places but I’m a gonna say it again here.

• Gratitude is a powerful Mind Mastery tool NOT because “it’s nice to be grateful”… even tho it is.
• Gratitude is a powerful Mind Mastery tool NOT because it’s “spiritual” although many spiritual traditions preach gratitude (usually before they pass the offering plate… and to be fair they have to pay their bills in order to serve their congregations so support your spiritual community as best you can :o).
• Gratitude is a powerful Mind Mastery tool NOT because it brings you more abundance and prosperity… even tho it does…

Those are all fine.

Gratitude is so powerful because focusing on what you are grateful for literally changes your body’s bio chemistry by directing the focus of your unconscious mind to build evidence to support that idea. And we get more of what we focus on.

When you focus on how incredible you are, what incredible luck you’ve had merely to be alive right now, how healthy you are even if you have some physical challenge, how rich you are even when you aren’t sure how you’re going to make your bills this month, etc…

…it literally, physically pulls you out of victim thinking and the negative toxic bio chemistry that victim thinking triggers.

And that’s just healthy for your body and it creates a positive thought loop that leads to more opportunity, more health, more resourcefulness and it FEELS GOOD.

And feeling good is good. Good for YOU and definitely good for the people around you! Seriously who would YOU rather hang around with? A negative, sour puss with “Eeyore” energy and attitude? Or someone a bit more fun, upbeat and joyful… like the Winnie the Pooh character, “Tigger”?

Back in early 2009 when I was squatting in a soon to be foreclosed upon apartment in the creepy, crime filled part of town, I forced myself to focus on the fact that I had a place to stay, hot and cold water, a cooler for my food (the fridge croaked shortly after I moved in) and a fenced in yard with a fierce (but friendly to me) German Shepherd protecting me from thieves and thugs. To be honest it wasn’t easy. I’d gone from having my best year ever to having my worst year ever financially.

But I was healthy.

I was free of a lot of expensive “overhead”. I had choices. I had opportunities. I had possibilities. When I remembered to focus on how lucky I was and how blessed I was…

And focusing on WHAT WAS GOOD helped me pull my head out of my ass and move forward with my mission in life… When I stopped focusing on all that I had lost in the crash of 2008 and started focusing on where it might lead me, I was gradually able to get my life back together with an expanded idea of what was possible.

It wasn’t an instant quick fix. It was and still is a process. And All of that eventually led me here.

As thanksgiving and the “Season of Light” approaches with all the “black friday” hype and mass media hypnosis around the holidaze, I am deeply grateful not only for all of my “failures” and successes, but for the fact that I have YOU out there in cyber space listening to my music.

I am filled with gratitude for my amazing band that played so beautifully with me last Saturday (check out the song at the bottom of this post). And for the full house of action taking, music lovers, friends and family that gathered to help me celebrate this crazy 40 year compulsion to write songs…

Thank you. I deeply, deeply appreciate you and your beautiful ears. Thank you for listening and sharing my stuff.

Your mind mastery Message for today (should you choose to accept it) is to do your absolute best to focus RELENTLESSLY on what you have to be truly, sincerely grateful for in your life.

Just think! You probably don’t have to mine your own salt right? You probably have a computer and internet service right? You probably have eyes that work enough to read these words right? You probably have ears to hear my songs with right? Keep going. Make as long a list as you can. Do this exercise as often as you can stand to do it. Right before bed. Right after waking up. Do it for a day and take notes on how you feel. Do it for a week, a month. etc. This is a muscle that needs to be worked so that it grows.

Peace and groovyness!

– Mark

p.s. Here’s your Transformation Tune for the day: