After mowing his lawn a man parked his nice zero turn radius lawnmower out in front of his garage.  Then he went behind his house to do some more work in his backyard.  All of the sudden he heard a loud explosion!  He ran around the front of his house to find his beautiful mower engulfed in flames.

Quickly he grabbed his fire extinguisher to douse the inferno.  Neighbors saw the huge plume of smoke with leaping flames and hurried to help.  In all, 4 fire extinguishers were used and the flames were not even stifled.  The mower was disintegrating right in front of everyone’s eyes.  Eventually, the fire was extinguished using the man’s garden hose.  Unfortunately, by the time the fire was out, the mower wasn’t more than a pile of burned metal and ashes.  It was a complete and total loss.

Can you imagine the thoughts that were running through this man’s head?

Many years ago I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for the first time.  It was on these pages that I learned of Viktor Frankl.  He was a psychiatrist and a Jew.  He was also a prisoner in the death camps of Natzi Germany.  As Stephen Covey put it “he experienced things that were so repugnant to our sense of decency that we shudder to even repeat them”.

His entire family, save one sister, perished in death camps or gas ovens.  Frankl himself suffered through innumerable indignities and various forms of torture.  On any given day he never knew if he would be led to a gas chamber for his own peril or be required to shovel out the ashes of those so destined.

My heart aches to think of this man’s suffering.  I cannot imagine how forlorn he must have been.  How did he find a way to survive such anguish?

When faced with seemingly insurmountable suffering such as that of Viktor Frankl; or even with the loss of a much needed lawnmower; there is much to be distressed about.  There are feelings of anger, despair, regret, hopelessness.  I’m sure many emotions filled your head as you read about each story just as they did for me.

With those emotions fresh on your mind, let’s have a Paul Harvey moment and hear “the rest of the story”.

What about the man with the lawnmower?  He usually parked it under the eaves of his shed.  This shed is filled with many things that are of irreplaceable value to him and his wife.  His RV is parked right next to the shed.  If the mower had been put away as it usually was, the explosion would have ignited the shed and probably the RV as well. The mower, shed with contents and the RV would have likely all been consumed by the blaze.  Because he lives out in the country the fire trucks may not have arrived in time and the fire could have spread to his house and shop and the results could have been catastrophic.

What if the mower had exploded while the man was still driving it?  He could have been severely burned or even lost his life.

When sharing his flaming lawnmower experience with others, these are the things he and his wife shared.  They were so thankful that no one was near the lawnmower when it exploded.  No one was hurt or injured.  They were thankful it was parked out in front of the house away from buildings and other property.  They were so happy their shed with all its irreplaceable contents and their RV were untouched and safe.  They were thankful they had the means to clean up the mess and replace the lawnmower.

There were no feelings of anger or frustration expressed, just that “G” word – GRATITUDE.

There is something to be said for someone who can take any situation and turn it into something good.  Interestingly enough, this kind of thinking breeds on itself – as does the opposite.

Have you ever been around someone who is always complaining?  My dinner is cold.  I hate it here, the wind always blows.  I hate my job, the people there irritate me – These individuals never seem to have anything good to say and you probably don’t enjoy being around them very much.  Or if you do spend much time around them, you start to complain as well.  They bring you down to their level.

But what if these individuals had a different perspective?  What if they said things like:  I’m so thankful we have all this yummy food to eat.  I love that I can get outside and enjoy the fresh air without any smog.  I am so grateful for my job and the wide variety of people I get to associate with at work.

Comments like that give you a lift!  They elevate your energy.  Like breeds like.  The more you express gratitude, the more you will be blessed with to be grateful for.  Bear in mind the opposite is true too.  If you focus on lack and “don’t wants”, that is what you will breed more of.

So what about Viktor Frankl?  What is the rest of his story?  How could he ever have anything to be grateful for under such horrific circumstances?

“One day, naked and alone in a small room, he (Frankl) began to become aware of what he later called ‘the last of the human freedoms’ – the freedom his Nazi captors could never take away.  They could control his environment, they could do what they wanted to his body, but Viktor Frankl himself was a self-aware being who could look as an observer at his very involvement.  His basic identity was intact.  He could decide within himself how all of this was going to affect him.  Between what happened to him, or the stimulus, and his response to it, was his freedom or power to choose that response.”

“Through a series of disciplines – mental, emotional, and moral, principally using memory and imagination – he exercised his small, embryonic freedom until it grew larger and larger, until he had more freedom than his Nazi captors.  They had more liberty, more options to choose from in their environment; but he had more freedom, more internal power to exercise his options.  He became an inspiration to those around him, even to some of the guards.  He helped others find meaning in their suffering and dignity in their prison existence.”  (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

What a great example of gratitude.  He found the one thing he could be grateful for – his freedom.  He focused on that – not his pain and suffering, with all his being.  His freedom flourished and multiplied.  He survived the death camps and went on to live a full and meaningful life.

What a great man to emulate.  He found something to be grateful for in a seemingly hopeless situation and so can we.

So whether you are being tortured and imprisoned or your lawnmower blows up, it really doesn’t matter.  There is always something to be grateful for and living a life focused on That “G” Word will bring you more and more to be grateful for.

I challenge you to take a moment at the beginning or end of each day and spend one minute being grateful.  Just 60 seconds.  Repeat out loud everything you can think of that you are grateful for.  Start by saying “I am grateful for/that” and then just list things off: I can walk; I have a roof over my head; I have glasses so I can see; I have a toothbrush to brush my teeth; I didn’t pee my pants today.  Anything and everything you can think of.  You might find you want to take a little more than a minute because so many things will come to mind.

If you do this every day, you will start to see a change in your perspective.  You will find you are receiving more and more things to be thankful for.  You will find you start to “think with an attitude of gratitude”.

Remember, like breeds like.  What are you breeding?

Carolyn

Carolyn Tyger is an Energy Intuitive & SimplyHealed™ Practitioner.

www.carolyntyger.com