Introduction
A good friend once called me one day and asked me if I could help him.
I asked him what his problem was.
Without going into details: When he answered me, the following thought came to me:
"And you call that a problem? You wouldn't last a day if you were me."
I am not a bad friend. Therefore, I didn't voice my thoughts and helped him. It wasn't really hard for me to find the right words because I could relate to his situation. Let's put it this way... I was once in a similar situation.
But now I ask myself the following question:
Why does my buddy perceive such a challenge as a problem, although in my opinion it is something petty?
I would like to respond to this question in today's blog article.
Pay close attention. You can learn something about yourself.
What we humans do wrong
I believe that we humans evaluate our lives by unconsciously comparing ourselves to others. But we set the bar for success extremely high. Think about it. There are so many rich people in the world.... Millionaires and billionaires. They live into the day and have achieved everything in their lives that they wanted to achieve. Some of them are just 22 years old. And I (am also 22) am sitting here and have achieved nothing at all compared to them. These thoughts cause us to not value our current situation. Instead, we put it down. I wonder if what we're doing is fair. Of course it isn't. We blank out the misery of the world:
Starving children, killings, torture....
Having thoughts like this (see above) shows that I compare myself with others. I believe that it is time that we should change something about ourselves. How do we do that?
Compare yourself for a second with such people who starve or are tortured.
Or just... stop comparing yourself to others (also read @baris.metin/stop-comparing-yourself-to-others-do-this-instead)
Do you realize that you live a life of luxury? Obviously not.
You may not be doing as well as many are. But others can say the same about themselves compared to your situation.
https://www.pexels.com/de-de/foto/mann-der-an-der-seite-der-strasse-sitzt-die-sich-wahrend-des-tages-auf-strassengelander-nahe-autos-zurucklehnt-3107799/
https://www.pexels.com/de-de/foto/frau-die-sich-auf-bett-im-zimmer-legt-2417842/
I think I provoked some people with my words in today's post. Thank you for continuing to read (anyway) until now. As a gift or "reward for reading" I would now like to give you a tip on how you can show more gratitude for your current situation.
=> Keep a gratitude diary
Every day after you woke up, write down 5 things you are grateful for. So one day before, think about exactly what you want to write down in the morning. Before you go to bed, write down 5 more points. This leads to the fact that you automatically start to look for aspects in your life for which you are grateful.
But here comes the biggest secret to success:
In fact, gratitude can be divided into three levels.
First level
The first level is about expressing gratitude in a very "dry" way. Usually you do not feel gratitude. How should you proceed at the beginning? You just write down some points on a white sheet of paper without really feeling anything. At that moment, you just don't feel the gratitude. But that is completely normal. You still have to go through this first level to be able to get to the second and even the third level. The feeling of gratitude will come eventually.
You wonder when it will?
Unfortunately, I can't tell you. This is different for each person. In fact, it took me about a year (even a little longer). But today I feel gratitude with my whole body. And that even every morning.
Second level
On the second level we come closer to the feelings. I would say of myself that I am on the second level. This means that you also feel the gratitude in your body. I have the feeling of gratitude largely under my control. Every morning when I wake up, I specifically try to evoke it. Sometimes, of course, it doesn't work. But that is completely normal. Sometimes something doesn't work out. The thing about feelings is that you can't force them. If they want, they come. If they don't, they don't.
Third level
The third and final level is about absolute gratitude. The feeling relates to ALL (!) areas of life without exception. You are grateful that your body is healing; grateful that you moved; grateful that you met new people; grateful that you retook an exam you failed....
Notice what?
All of these situations assume that you failed somewhere.
Your body only needs to heal when you hurt yourself.
A successful move requires you to part with loved ones.
An exam that you repeated requires that you failed it once.
This level of gratitude arises when you realize that through every negative situation, something beautiful arises. Most of the time, it is only in retrospect that we realize why our lives turned out the way they did.
I hope that I could make you think with my words.
