In every dark cloud, there's a silver lining (Part 2 of 5)

For everything situation or event in life, there’s always something we can be thankful for. ALWAYS. It’s just that most of us – our brains – have been trained to look for the worst in any situation. If not the worst, then for most people we tend to look for the negatives, the problems, the difficulties. This may be because of an underlying belief that life IS difficult. Life IS unfair. We MUST struggle in order to succeed. And many other similar beliefs that we have come to accept and therefor experience in our lives.

These underlying messages are embedded in our subconscious, and we play out that "reality" expected. As you believe it, so it is.  In psychology, this is often referred to as the "Self Fulfilling Prophecy."

My suggestion here is a little different from Part 1 previously. With the previous suggestion of minimizing the negative flow of information, the idea was to substitute the constant flow of taking in or exposing ourselves to an overwhelming amount of the negative. Instead, it would be more enriching if we were to allow more positive, more pleasant news to come to us. Some may say it was simply just substituting negative with positive news.

However, here I am suggesting we take it one step further. Not only do we look for positive news to replace the dark and gloomy. Instead, look for the silver lining – “the good out of the bad.” In other words, within any "unpleasant" situation or event - look out for the positive thing that can come out of it. Perhaps it is a lesson we can take from it. Or we may see an opportunity instead of a problem.

Re-train our brain to look for positive things in our lives to be grateful for. And if we were to look, we will always see that there is something to be grateful for.

Peace & Namaste