appreciation – Pam Grout

You can’t make an elephant purr and other reasons to give up resistance

September 12, 2016 21 Comments

“Don’t surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn’t true anymore.”–Cheryl Strayed

Yesterday in the posse, my really wise friend Cindy made the above comment about the futility of resistance. It says it all. When we continue to beat ourselves over the head trying to make that elephant purr, we are going to continue to be miserable.

It’s plain and simple, folks. We cannot fight problems. We can try and try and try, but fighting, fixing, focusing on what’s wrong is like driving the wrong way down a one-way street.

But there is a steering wheel on our car. We CAN turn around. We can start moving with the flow of the universe. It’s done by taking our attention off everything we think sucks. All those problems we think need fixing. All those issues we have with so and so. Or with our jobs. Or with our bodies.

When we get in the flow of gratitude, when we start noticing all the gazillion things that are going right, those annoying problems have a way of fixing themselves. They literally dissolve. Without any input on our part.

It sounds counterintuitive, I know. We’ve been doing it the other way (driving the wrong way on the one-way street, trying to teach that elephant to purr) for most of our lives.

But we can turn around. We can let that elephant roar. And it all starts with putting our attention on things that we like. Things for which we are grateful.

As for me, I’m loving the open windows, autumn weather, listening to the crickets. I’m loving the fact that the sun continues to come up each morning. There is so, so, so much to be grateful for. And that’s the only road on which I want to drive.

Pam Grout is the author of 18 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just released, Thank and Grow Rich: a 30-day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy.

One more reason to shout “Hallelujah!”

July 23, 2013 6 Comments

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”–Melody Beattie

It’s pretty easy to be grateful when the sails of life are blowing your way. But what about those times when things “appear” not to be working out?

My tact? Say “hallelujah!” anyway.

We, in our limited pea brains, don’t always see the big picture. It’s like standing with your nose against the pointillist painting. It looks like a bunch of dots. But when you step back and look again in gratitude, it becomes Georges Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”

Gail Lynne Goodwin told me a story that illustrates this perfectly. A few months ago, she and a couple friends had a girlfriends’ outing planned. Not sure about all the exciting details, but one of the friends, on the day of, woke up to find her daughter running a fever.

She called Gail whimpering about her bad luck. Gail responded in the way she responds to everything: “That’s fabulous!”

“No, you didn’t hear me,” her girlfriend said. “I’m not going to be able to go today.”

Again, Gail, said, “That’s fabulous!”

She reminded her that she’d been needing some free time to sift through paperwork and that this so-called “setback” provided the perfect opportunity.

Her friend thanked Gail for the reminder and not only did she end up having a delightful day with her daughter, but while cruising the internet, came across the very house she’d been lusting after for three years. This dream house was way more than she felt she could afford, but, on this day, while dealing with the disappointment of thwarted plans, she saw “her house” had gone into foreclosure and was selling for one-quarter the price.

As Gail said, “She now has a contract on her dream home.”

So, no matter what your judgments about your life may be, say, “Hallelujah!”

And be over-the-moon grateful that everything is working out for your good.

Pam Grout is the author of 16 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality.