A simple tool that changes lives!
I am a big fan of gratitude… the attitude of gratitude. I do it as a daily practice writing out long lists of big and small things I am grateful for. This includes material things, emotional things and qualities I have myself or see in others. Gratitude helps us to see all the good that we have in our lives, and even turns the challenging times into opportunities to learn from, giving us a new perspective and raising our vibration. This better and brighter vibration makes us happier from within, which has an impact on all of our life and helps to attract more good things to be grateful for. I also write down things I don’t have but would like. I write in the present or past tense as if I already have them or already am the quality that I want to be.
Some days it is more challenging to find things to be grateful for but there is always something and on those days I go back to the basics of things like my home, food, water, my strength, etc and find that from this my list grows a bit more than I expected it to and I feel better for writing it out and seeing how much there actually is to be grateful for. Instantly my mood improves.
It was through one of my dogs some years ago that I got into the attitude of gratitude. Her name was Polly and she was the only dog whose name I have not changed when I adopted her from the rescue centre. She was a very gentle and kind dog and mirrored such a lot of my good qualities to me and she encouraged me to practice appreciation. “Pollyanna and the Glad Game” – Polly, her name was perfect without being changed. The rose in the header image is one I call Polly’s Rose as I don’t know the proper name of it, I made a flower essence from this rose after a nudge from Polly and its energy is all about gratitude and raising us to that vibration.
Being grateful for our dogs is usually very easy, however if you have a more challenging dog it can be much harder to be grateful. It can take a real effort to find the things to appreciate in them but I promise it is worth it as it changes your relationship with your dog for the better. Shortly after I adopted Polly I adopted another dog who was people-aggressive, to me as well as others. Stories from my journey with him will be in many more blog posts.
Rufus was very, very challenging but full of love at the same time, he was reacting out of fear from his past treatment. When I started to be grateful for all his good points, and he had many, I found more and more to be grateful for and our connection and relationship deepened and improved. It was one of the things that helped us on our journey together. The more I focused on his good points and appreciated them, the better he became and the more relaxed we both were, tension eased a lot and our stress reduced. His good points started getting even better, which left less room for the not-so-good behaviours to exist. Then I could find even more to be grateful for and so it went on and on making our lives together better, easier and more enjoyable.
I highly recommend practicing gratefulness in all areas of your life on a daily basis and you will see the difference it makes in your life. If you have a ‘challenging’ dog (cat, horse, child, job, relationship, etc) then really focus on all the things to appreciate about them and you will see things change. Be grateful for what you want and give gratitude for that as if you have it and you will open the door for it to happen, for things to improve, for new ways to be. At the very least your new perspective and vibration will be helping you and reduce your stress but I know from experience that it goes further than this and changes situations for the better.
Thank YOU for reading!