Try out this thought for size; ‘My life is perfect. I have everything that I need and I am truly grateful’. Spend a day reciting this thought in your mind over and over again. If it helps, write it down again and again. Just try for twenty-four hours to truly embrace this thought and see what happens. If there’s even the slightest improvement in your day or how you feel, make a deal with yourself to do it for another day. And why not keep doing this whilst it continues to work for you?
Those of you who are familiar with the Reach Approach will understand that we passionately believe well-being is a healthy marriage between mind, body, spirit and environment (see Story of Health). It’s a beautiful dance between all four, where each performs its role gracefully and harmoniously. It’s a wonderful contract of interdependence where each aspect performs its function with respect for itself and the whole organism. In other words, health is a state of non- rivalry. So therefore, anything we do that spoils the dance, corrupts the contract or contaminates the relationship, denies us health and well-being. Complaining does just that.
The more we complain, the more we have to complain about. The more we give thanks, the more we will have to be grateful for. This is so simple and in many ways obvious and yet its depth and power is still not fully understood.
Complaining has many forms. It is not simply the act of ‘wittering on’ or grumbling to yourself and others. That’s the obvious expression of complaint. To complain means being frustrated with your life, being dissatisfied with your relationships, doubting yourself, your talents and abilities. It’s a life of comparing and competing, striving to mask your deficiencies and shortcomings; a life of overcompensating in order to be liked and to fit in. It’s a turbulent river of dissatisfaction that runs through the landscape of your life. It eats away at you, telling you you’re not good enough, what you have is not good enough and propels you to pursue things you don’t need to make you feel better about yourself and your reality.
Can you relate to this? Are you complaining and haven’t even realised? Our research and clinical experience clearly shows that the majority of people are complaining in some form. They simply aren’t aware of it. Why not take a closer look at your life and note how much you pretend, defend, justify and deny (these are just some of the offspring of complaining). Why not do that now?
Take up our challenge. Develop the habit of ‘thank you’. An attitude of gratitude will completely change your perception and perspective. Just as a culture of complaint has bent you out of shape (distorted your true nature), the practice of ‘thank you’ will not only restore your beauty, it will attract everything you need into your life. Complaining takes you further away from yourself and the truth, whilst ‘thank you’ brings you into a loving embrace with your purpose and potential. In other words, you stop living as a passenger in your own life, wondering which way the vehicle will take you next. Instead you move into the driver’s seat with a confidence in what you need to do and where you need to go. It’s so satisfying.
Try this thought; ‘My life is perfect, I have exactly what I need and for that I am truly grateful’. Even though your life may not be perfect and may not be exactly as you wish it to be right now, by daring to think in this way, both your psychology and biology are positively affected. You are what you think you are. Your perceptions and your beliefs do shape your reality. Find things to be grateful for every day and things to be grateful for will come and find you! The laws of cause and effect relate to everything in our world so try sending out the right signals and watch the inevitable return of your preferred outcomes (your dreams). This one act will save your life if you let it. Practice the power of thank you faithfully. It has untold depths and it never disappoints.
