Attitude of Gratitude

I wanted to share this post weeks ago be decided to hold off until I had 30 days under my belt to report on.  Let me start off by saying that I love the whole New Year resolutions tradition.  I enjoy taking time to reflect on the past year and try to make some sense of events.  I also enjoy pondering the upcoming year and imagining the possibilities of goals/desires/wishes.

I have had my share of disastrous resolutions that didn’t survive beyond midnight of January 1st.  It has taken me many years to understand the real intent of a new year resolution.  Resolutions are not make or break promises that must be life changing.  They are more about self-reflection and a desire to alter some aspect of your personal life slowly and thoughtfully over a 12-month period of time.   They are not meant to be rigid nor are they a measure of your worth, desire or level of commitment.

That being said, I decided that in 2012 I intended to make a conscious effort to see the positives in my life rather than the negatives.  I knew that I had many things in my life to be grateful/thankful for and I wanted to focus on these items.  I am not suggesting that I wear rose-colored glasses or change my name to Pollyanna  (fear not, I am not giving up my right to whine/b*tch).  I also wanted to somehow share my attitude of gratitude with others.

I decided that each day I would reflect on a positive connection that I have had with another individual and I would send them a simple note thanking them for this experience.  I had no idea what I was setting myself up to accomplish.  It is one thing to think about a positive interaction with someone but a whole ‘nuther thing to actually act upon those thoughts.

So, here it is, 30 days later.  I have written 30 notes of appreciation/gratitude.  I have spent several hours looking up addresses and figuring out last names of individuals in order to mail them the notes.  The responses back from some of the individuals have been amazing.  A couple of individuals have called me to personally thank me for the notes and to tell me how much the notes meant to them.  I thanked one individual for dresser she gave my son and she called to ask if I wanted a larger screen tv.  Another called to thank me for my note and ended up ordering a few scarves.  My pharmacist called to tell me how much he valued my appreciation and how it really made his day.  I have been jotting down names of individuals to send a note to and it has made me even more aware how fortunate I have been to have had so many positive interactions with other people.

I’ve also realized how many times I take others for granted.  Oh, I have always appreciated my homecare pharmacist and I know I have said “thank you” at end of telephone calls.  But I never really told him how grateful I am for his consistently professional and accurate weekly orders of my hydration/nutrition supplies.

I have not experienced a day yet where I could not think of someone to thank.  My penmannship has improved immensely.  I am a little bummed because I can’t seem to find the supplier of note cards that have a delete/backspace button.  If anyone knows where to buy these cards, please let me know.

I am a big fan of challenges and would like to challenge everyone to make it a point to write a simple thank you note to someone this week.  I don’t expect anyone to join me in my 365-day challenge but I would love to inspire others to write one or two cards over the next month.  I will be posting about this challenge at the end of each month.  I am keeping a small notebook of those I have thanked and the date thanked as well as a short comment about why I thanked them… I am benefiting so much from this positive reflection exercise mentally.

There have been several self-help gurus who claim that you can change your life by changing your attitude.  While I don’t buy this simple viewpoint, I do have to admit that a few unusual events have happened during this past month…for example the tv.  I also received a letter from a dear old friend and enclosed was a check…desperately needed TIRES for the car!!!!    Probably coincidence but it certainly does open the door a little to the possibility that positive energy attracts positive energy.

Anyone else have a story to share share about the benefits of positive thinking?

Meanwhile, I am not doing so good at putting a positive spin on my upcoming visit to the surgeon on Thursday.  His aggressive approach is PAINFUL and the discomfort is still present from last week’s visit.  His treatment does not seem to have made much of a difference.  It makes me uncomfortable to simply think about voluntarily going to his torture chamber to receive pain.  I am not sure how to put a positive spin to this upcoming event.  Based on last week’s visit, I can assure you that he won’t be receiving a thank you note from me anytime soon.