A Lesson of Inspiration and Gratitude

 

Inspiration

It comes in many forms, in many ways…when we least expect it and when we do. I think inspiration is all around us, we just have to be ready for it and see it when it’s in front of us. We have to be open to being inspired and that comes back to our attitude, our level of gratitude and our belief in hope for ourselves and for those around us.

So what is your attitude? Think about it…we have to align ourselves and re-align ourselves (everyday sometimes) to keep a positive attitude, but it’s worth it. As Chuck Swindoll so wisely reminds us in his Attitude poem, “The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day…I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.” If our attitude is in the right place, we will be inspired by the small things and the grand.

When we look at our lives through the lens of gratitude, our whole world will shift. I like to go to bed at night with 5 things I’m grateful for that day. When I was battling cancer, I did this without fail. I started with 3 things because that was all I could think of but within a few weeks I had easily built it to 10 things I was grateful for each day. It was important to my healing because it made me go to a place of gratitude even when I wasn’t feeling particularly grateful. It was truly healing for my soul and still is today. It gives me a perspective on my day and my life–and that’s important to have. Again, it doesn’t always have to be the big things that everyone would be grateful for, although those are always welcome. But strength comes in recognizing the small, seemingly insignificant things, or finding the good in a very bad situation that keep us stable and form our foundation for creating a life of gratitude.

Hope, we all need and want it in our lives, both for the present and our future. It’s what makes us keep going in the face of extreme diversity…the hope that things will be better, be different. With hope, anything’s possible! This belief has served me well in my life…and when I let my hope combine with faith, it becomes even more powerful.

Life is a gift–I learned that many years ago–and I mean really learned it. I knew it was a gift, but I didn’t fully understand it until I was faced with losing mine. I know there are many, too many of you that have also faced this for yourself or a loved one. But there is only one certainty in this world and that is that someday, this life on earth will end. Committing to an attitude full of gratitude and hope helps me to find inspiration all around me. What inspires me? SO many things…too many to name. It’s in the beautiful everyday of our lives and even in the darkest challenges of our lives, we just have to be looking for it, to be ready to receive it, to cultivate a spirit that wants to be inspired.

Today, where I am in my life, I have found for me, the best way to be inspired is to inspire others…to be more, to do more, to live more, to serve more, to give more and to do these things with a positive attitude, a heart of gratitude and a belief that anything is possible. Now that’s inspiring!

– Pam Brown, February 2012

 

 

About the Author | Pam Brown

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