< PreviousCHANGE YOUR STORYby Sam CawthornMany people feel like they have been dealt a bad hand.They feel like the world is against them. Many people feel like a victim, and that there is no room for gratitude. I believe it is impossible for gratefulness & bitterness to co-exist. That is why gratefulness is all about the stories that we tell ourselves. If we ever have a bad thing happen to us, research will tell us that 60 – 70% of people will suddenly look at that bad thing as a negative, meaning they will look at it as if that they have been hard done by. That it’s not fair.The other 30-40 % of people will feel that this tough time or this failure, this adversity, this crisis or this sense of injustice is an experience that they need in order to grow. This is based around the story that we constantly tell ourselves when we expe-rience things such as adversity, a finan-cial crisis, the death of a loved one or the loss of something.But we all have these tough times, these moments of challenge, and my advice would be to find ways to navigate these tough times by changing the story around them.If you change your story you can change your life. I had a major car accident, I lost my arm and I wrecked my leg. The doctors said I would never be able to walk again.Throughout this journey, instead of feel-ing sorry for myself, getting bitter and an-gry, I looked at this experience as ‘Wow! I’m so grateful that I’m still alive. I can still be a father to my kids, I didn’t injure my face or my brain, and I’m so grateful that I can still move forward in my life.’ Recently I lost my father and I decided to look at this ex-perience in the same way: ‘Wow - I’m so grateful that I had an amazing father who cared for me, loved me and taught me the great things of the world.’I’m so grateful for an amazing Dad that I was given for all of those years. But some people might tell a dif-ferent story about what happens to them. For example, if they had a major car accident and now live with a disability, their story might be: ‘I can’t believe I now live with a disability. My life is over, I can’t be a great Dad, I’m now going to wallow in my misery,’ or alternatively if they lost their father they might think ‘I can’t believe Dad left me I am so depressed and angry about it.’Gratefulness is merely a choice, and the greatest way to choose is by changing the story around it. Here are 3 ways to change the way you view your life by changing your story:Proximity is PowerThere is now undisputed evidence that shows that you are the average of your five closest friends. When you hang around with people who always look at the world in a positive way and are looking for ways to choose hap-piness through difficult times, it will rub off on the people around them.Search for HopeHope can sometimes come across as a fluffy word, however the way I look at hope is that it is that ignition, that spark, that moment of looking at things in a completely different way. A lot of the time we hear people say it is hopeless, and my advice for these people is to never 100% give up. Even if there is a one percent chance of a change or a shift in a positive way, then hold on to that, because that may then change to 2%, 5% and maybe one day be more than 50%. The Best is Yet to ComeThe more that we look at the future in a negative light, the more we will be disheartened by everyday moments and the more we will look for ways we can be sad for more moments in each day, and things will get underneath our skin more easily as well. One thing I have found is that if you choose to say that the best is yet to come, then you can anticipate what’s next in your life. I believe if you change your language, you change your life. But also if you change your story, you can be more grateful.Gratitude is a choice - isn’t it time to change your story? A TEN MINUTE DAILYGRATITUDE PRACTICETO NOURISH YOUby Lisa MurrayDo you live a life where satis-faction is always just around the corner? You’re always seeking - more, bigger, better, new. Jobs, cars, degrees, adventures, ide-as, money, relationships… they all tease you with the outrageous possi-bility that ‘everything will be won-derful once you have this next great thing’. Have you noticed that no matter how much you say yes to it all, it’s never enough for you? This constant seeking is exhausting, but settling for mediocre isn’t exact-ly thrilling either. So what do you do? I’ll admit to being a serial satisfaction seeker. It changed when I stopped running myself ragged on the dissat-isfaction treadmill and started fully receiving everything I already am. Getting off that treadmill was far eas-ier than I imagined. It started with gratitude. Not the ‘shut-up and be thankful for what you’ve got’ kind of gratitude that we are taught as children. No. The kind of gratitude that soothes and nourishes you at the deepest levels, holding you in an embrace so gentle that you begin to know you already have everything that makes you valuable. This kind of gratitude makes you aware that your satisfaction comes from within, and that you can always receive more - with ease! I’m talking about…GRATITUDE FOR YOUGratitude is nourishing and nurturing when it is for YOU. Not for what you do, what you have, being a good wife or mum or leader… or even how many disasters you averted today! Gratitude for who you are and who you be in the world. This is simultane-ously the most soul-satisfying and confronting kind of gratitude you can have. Soul-satisfying because you allow yourself to truly know who you are, in every cell of your being. Confronting because you have to ac-knowledge that you are far greater than you’ve wanted to know. Confronting because you start to see that you have everything you’ve been asking for, but you haven’t been choosing to fully live it in your day to day actions. Gratitude for you is a simple way of receiving all that you are. When you are grateful, you are acknowledging the beauty and magic of you, and that acknowledgement creates more. Here’s how to play:Every day, write a list of ten things you are grateful to you for. Make your list intensely intimate. Don’t put your gratitude so far ‘out there’ that you don’t feel connected with it. For example, being grateful for other people, or what you own… bring your gratitude into the most personal space you can - YOU!This gratitude practice takes you far beneath the surface of ‘not enough’, into a space where everything you are expands. Your superpowers emerge. You realise how incredible you are, and you start to nurture and nour-ish your essence, rather than criti-cising yourself for everything you are ‘not’.Dissatisfaction and gratitude can-not co-exist. Judgement and grati-tude cannot occupy the same space either. If you stick with it, this glorious gratitude practice will show you there is a lot more to you than you ever imagined.What gratitude can you offer you, that would heal the wounds of not getting your needs fulfilled?Next >