Shining Light blog

Shining Light on Life

Gratitude can change your Attitude

Attitude changes things

Some of us have complaining minds. Whether your mind just likes to vent (get someone to listen), looks for sympathy, or ruminates obsessively about a problem, all these tendencies are unhealthy to your mind and body.

Quantum physics has demonstrated that merely observing (noticing; turning our attention to) something, we bring it into being. Reality comes into being through consciousness turning its attention in that direction. In other words, whatever we focus on grows. This is why worrying and complaining is not a good idea.
Negativity physically destroys your brain explains Rick Hanson, Ph.D., a psychologist and Senior Fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, “…people who routinely experience chronic stress—particularly acute, even traumatic stress—release the hormone cortisol, which literally eats away, almost like an acid bath, at the hippocampus, which is a part of the brain that’s very engaged in visual-spatial memory as well as memory for context and setting.”

We’ve all heard that gratitude is important. An Attitude of Gratitude is potentially one of the most common threads to all religions. An Attitude of Gratitude is more than thinking of 3 things to be grateful for at the end of each day. An Attitude is something that is inherent and constant. One way of considering an Attitude of Gratitude is more like the Bible describes in Ephesians 5:20 “Giving thanks always for all things unto God.’ Or “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God.”


University of California at Berkeley Research showed that gratitude leads to a stronger immune system, healthier blood pressure, greater joy, optimism, and sense of overall well-being, acting with more generosity and compassion, and feeling less lonely and isolated. A group of Chinese researchers found that higher levels of gratitude were associated with better sleep, and also with lower levels of anxiety and depression.

An Attitude of Gratitude is essentially a state of mind where one reminds themselves to focus on the good even when things are not going as we wish. Yes, even in the hard times. Gratitude eventually, by continual choice, becomes a way of seeing life.

Let’s face it, sometimes we don’t FEEL grateful! This is important to notice, but still move forward. Gratitude can be cultivated.

The Art of Ascension provides simple tools that bring gratitude into our lives simply and easily. Before I learned the Art of Ascension, I had a “practice of Gratitude” with little clips of paper in my car, in the bathroom, at my desk with statements of Gratitude. I “worked at it” religiously. When I learned the Art of Ascension, I was amazed at how effortless it really is. Shocked in fact! Using these tools takes the mind into a much deeper place quickly and effortlessly. Gratitude becomes the by-product, as does health, joy, and peace.

If you would like to learn more, please contact me.