Chatting with a loved one not long ago, it suddenly clicked. I realised how blind I had been regarding a particular area in my life.
Overlooked.
And I wondered how many others do this too?
How often do we want something in our life, set goals, go out to achieve certain things... focusing on what we don't have right now and 'oh how great my life will be WHEN I have__X__'. That statement is limiting us from enjoying life before achieving __X__.
If we expand our perspective we may actually realise we have much of what we want already. Perhaps not in the way we expected it to show up, still, often it's there.
We already have the love, money, health, success (whatever it is that we're looking for) in other ways already.
Just because something isn't showing up in the way that we want it or the way we expected it to show up... doesn't mean it's not there. It doesn't give us permission to dismiss all of the gifts within our human experience already.
If we want LOVE in our life, and feel jealous, irritated, sad, lonely when we see people loved up in the streets are we really lacking love in our life? Just because we may not have it in the way that we want it, doesn't give us permission to completely ignore the love we receive in life already.
It's there.
How often do we ignore, push away or reject the love that comes to us? For example, when somebody gives us a compliment... do we fully receive it? Or do we push it away and reject it reaffirming the opposite?
"That's a nice colour on you"
"Oh this old thing? You haven't seen the stain on the back"
Pushing away love right there.
If we want MONEY and financial abundance in our life, feeling restricted, resentful, angry at the 'lack' that we see... are we really lacking abundance in our life? Just because we don't have it in the way that we want it, doesn't give us permission to take for granted the abundance that is within our life already.
It's there.
How often do we take for granted the money that comes into our life already? For example, when we make payments or buy something... do we fully appreciate the fact that we can make that payment and the benefits we'll receive by doing so?
'Uggh I have to pay for __X__' rather than 'I'm so grateful for this (service/product/experience) and all I'm going to receive by paying for___X___'
Even utility bills... what a wealth of abundance it is to have running water, light, WiFi connection etc and everything that having that can allow us to do and experience.
If we want HEALTH in our life, and continue to focus on the aches, pains, irritations are we really lacking health? Just because we may not have it in the way that we want it, doesn't give us permission to completely ignore the health we currently have. This has been probably my biggest lesson.
It's there.
How often do we take for granted the health we currently have? For example, do we fully appreciate what our body can still do regardless of any symptoms we may have?
'My__X__ is playing up again, so annoying' vs 'I'm grateful I can breathe/talk/see/hear etc'
You get the picture.
We already have much of what we want already, just perhaps not in the way we want it or think it should come to us.
This doesn't mean to say we can never have goals and desires, it simply means that by bringing a little more GRATITUDE to the current situation we can gain more fulfilment, satisfaction and we may even realise the goal is not that important anyway. It also doesn't mean to say we ignore certain aspects and symptoms that need to be addressed, I'm not talking about spiritual bypassing here. I'm talking about appreciating what is present already and not allowing our desires and goals take away our satisfaction of what we already have.
This doesn't mean to say we can never have goals and desires, it simply means that by bringing a little more GRATITUDE to the current situation we can gain more fulfilment, satisfaction and we may even realise the goal is not that important anyway. It also doesn't mean to say we ignore certain aspects and symptoms that need to be addressed, I'm not talking about spiritual bypassing here. I'm talking about appreciating what is present already and not allowing our desires and goals take away our satisfaction of what we already have.
And this needn't mean to say we beat ourselves up for 'not being grateful' enough, we're all on this journey together, I've certainly had my fair share of reminders and it's a conscious choice to appreciate more on a regular basis. There may be easy moments and challenging moments in life. The challenging times are often a reminder of how strong and resilient we are.
Taking it a step further, many of the goals and desires we have are simply so we can FEEL a certain way. Happy, satisfied, free, loved etc. Good news is, we can create how we feel already, right now. Having __X__ isn't the only way. We don't need to wait and limit ourselves by attaching ourselves to the sole actualization of the said goal and missing the gifts that surround us already. More info on emotions here.
Taking it a step further, many of the goals and desires we have are simply so we can FEEL a certain way. Happy, satisfied, free, loved etc. Good news is, we can create how we feel already, right now. Having __X__ isn't the only way. We don't need to wait and limit ourselves by attaching ourselves to the sole actualization of the said goal and missing the gifts that surround us already. More info on emotions here.
We already have so much of what we want.
It's there - we just need to open our eyes and appreciate the gifts already within our experience. Perhaps it's presented in a different colour to what we expected. And just because it's different doesn't mean it's not there.
I wonder, what new gifts will you discover today? Let me know in the comment section below what you notice.
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