Gratefulness in Times of Not so Good

This is just a reminder, which we all need especially me, about the challenge of being thankful 1000 times before Thanksgiving. How are you doing?

We all have experienced bad times in our lives. Some were far more negative than others and some just seemed really bad in the moment. I have had two different areas in my life where I have had negative experiences. When I focus on either one of these situations, I get really down, or upset, or any other negative emotion. I then recently found out that I have a friend who was diagnosed with a fatal disease. I realized two things when I heard about this horrible thing. First, my problems were nowhere near as bad as this one. And Second, even though mine are no where near as bad, when I focused on them, they still caused real strong negative emotions.
So my choices were two. One is to focus on my friends health, which also causes negative emotions, but keeps my thoughts off of my own issues. The other one is to look at the issues in my life that are causing negative emotion, look them right in the eye and find what ever positive I could find. Sometimes it is like trying to find Waldo, but eventually you will find one. And when you find one and focus on that one, another one appears, and then another and then another. Then all of the sudden these issues that always caused negative thoughts and emotions are now barely even there and you have positive thought. Be grateful for every positive you can find, and more will come.

"Ok, Fitness Buff, what does this have to do with fitness?"

Fitness isn't just physical. You need to work in all of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of fitness to get the best results. This challenge will help improve 3 of these 4 and can be applied to the fourth.