The cornerstone of the Don’t Sweat philosophy is taking personal responsibility for your own happiness. Happiness begins with having an inner feeling of contentment with life and this happens as you practice noticing all that you have, instead of focusing on what might be missing.
You might find it surprising that once our survival needs are met, the surplus we have of material things have little or no impact on our ability to access our inner sense of well-being. Mostly, the material world can represent an endless sea of desire and wanting more and as a life practice can be insatiable. We get what we want and move on to the next thing that we want instead of appreciating all that we have. However, when we shift and become more focused on appreciation for all that we have in our lives that is good and satisfying instead of wanting more, then we nurture a new paradigm and strengthen the foundation of what it really means to be truly abundant because we have gratitude.
What I find completely intriguing is how easy it is to be asleep to the beauty of life when everything is humming along without speed bumps to slow you down. The paradox that astounds me is that if you had a line up of women and questioned them about where they are in their lives on a passion scale, the one who is more passionate about life is not necessarily the one whose life is in order. The one who is the most passionate about her life is oddly the one who has just been given the news that she may die. This is because when she suddenly becomes aware that her life may be shortened, the time she has left becomes her most precious commodity. Petty concerns, worries and annoyances all but disappear in the wake of big life changes. Keeping this in mind, gives us a great advantage, when we have our health and things are going well because it empowers us to live more fully awake and conscious. We don’t have to wait for bad news to choose to live more passionately. We can choose to fill our lives with deeper meaning each day by simply noticing the good things and being very present to those small joys and miracles that can slip by when we are sleep walking through our lives thinking we have all the time in the world to “some day, be happy.”
To begin to practice an attitude of gratitude, as you wake up each day, consider what you appreciate most about your life right now. You can reflect on the things you love about your partner or family members and friends creating more positive good feelings in all of your relationships. You can wake up and go to work each day thinking thoughts of appreciation for your job and your co-workers. In the evening at the dinner table, you can ask your kids what happened in their lives that were really great today. As we focus our conversation and attention in this direction we can see the beauty of life and live abundantly from our attitude of gratitude.
