I have always been a firm believer in the power our thoughts possess.\u00a0 I believe that our thoughts very much control our feelings.\u00a0 I also believe that we have total control of our own thoughts.\u00a0 Therefore, we ultimately have the ability to control our own feelings by controlling our own thoughts.<\/p>\n
If you depend on outside circumstances to determine your happiness, you will always be subjected to feeling up and down as the circumstances around you constantly change.\u00a0 If your happiness depends on another person loving you back and that doesn\u2019t happen then your happiness goes away.\u00a0 If you happiness depends on a certain job or title and then you lose that title then your happiness goes away.\u00a0 Anytime you allow your happiness to be driven from the outside in, it will never be consistent or sustainable.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, if you happiness is driven from within, going from the inside out, well then it is a completely different story.\u00a0 You then have the ability to keep it consistent and sustained because you control what is within your head which controls what\u2019s in your heart.\u00a0 So grateful thoughts equal a happy heart!<\/p>\n
Yes, the key to being happy is to think about all that you have to be grateful for in your life.\u00a0 Every single one of us has something to be grateful for.\u00a0 If you can read this blog, be grateful for your eyes that can see the world around you.\u00a0 If you can hear, be grateful you can hear words and music and laughter.\u00a0 If you can walk, be grateful for your legs that allow you to run and dance.\u00a0 If you have friends, be grateful for each one.\u00a0 If you believe in God, be grateful that He loves you unconditionally.\u00a0 If you have family, be grateful that you are not alone in this world.\u00a0 All of us have something to be grateful for.\u00a0 If you aren\u2019t sure how much you have to be grateful for in your life I will tell you to try something that a friend once suggested that I do at a time in my life in my 20\u2019s when I felt like my world was falling apart.\u00a0 My marriage was ending, I was burdened with being the sole support of my two children and scared to death to do that alone, I was moving to a new area where I knew no one, I was struggling with my own self-worth and I felt that happiness was nowhere to be found.\u00a0 A dear friend suggested that I go home and kneel down in the middle of a room where there was no furniture to lean against.\u00a0 Then my friend said I was to say a prayer out loud to my Heavenly Father, but in this prayer I was to ask for nothing from Him.\u00a0 I was to simply start thanking him out loud for every single little think I could possibly come up with that was good in my life.\u00a0 I was to pray as long as it took until I could literally think of nothing else good in my life.\u00a0 This friend pointed out that I should thank Him for my health, the grass, the flowers, a car\u2026you name it I was to remember to thank Him for it.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see how this prayer was going to make anything better in my life \u2013 it wouldn\u2019t change my circumstances that were causing me to be unhappy, but I figured \u201cwhat the heck, it couldn\u2019t make things worse\u201d, and so I went home and tried it.\u00a0 About 15 minutes into my prayer I broke down crying, not tears of sadness, just the opposite, they were tears of joy.\u00a0 I was absolutely overwhelmed at how blessed my life truly was and how much I had to be grateful for.\u00a0 When I finally got up from my prayer my entire perspective had changed.\u00a0 I stood up from that prayer feeling unbelievably blessed and amazingly happy.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t believe how happy I felt inside and how grateful I was for all that I had.\u00a0 That prayer changed my life.\u00a0 And now whenever things in my life start to feel sad or depressed I get down on my knees and begin my prayer of thanks for all that I have.\u00a0 And each time I do the miracle of happiness returns to my life.<\/p>\n
Have a HAPPY start to a blessed week!<\/p>\n
~Amy<\/p>\n
(opening quote by Marcus Aurelius)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have always been a firm believer in the power our thoughts possess.\u00a0 I believe that our thoughts very much control our feelings.\u00a0 I also believe that we have total control of our own thoughts.\u00a0 Therefore, we ultimately have the ability to control our own feelings by controlling our own thoughts. If you depend on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[168,501,500,46,60,550,63,1089,1201,1663,515,1499,51,641,189,30,29,244,65,414,55,451,598,464,35,1666,349,134,974,1665,576,1662,496,27,519,997,149,345,1664,516,442],"class_list":["post-3528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adversity","tag-appreciate","tag-appreciation","tag-attitude","tag-beautiful","tag-blessed","tag-blessings","tag-circumstance","tag-circumstances","tag-consistent","tag-control","tag-divorce","tag-family","tag-feelings","tag-friends","tag-gift","tag-god","tag-grateful","tag-gratitude","tag-guilt","tag-happiness","tag-heart","tag-job","tag-joy","tag-love","tag-miracle","tag-peace","tag-perspective","tag-power","tag-pray","tag-prayer","tag-sadness","tag-self-worth","tag-self-confidence","tag-self-esteem","tag-single-parent","tag-success","tag-support","tag-sustained","tag-thoughts","tag-title"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3528"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3533,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3528\/revisions\/3533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}