Weighting our blessings.

Why do we tend to put an inflated value on one aspect of our life and downgrade the value of another? Why do we give one aspect of our life the power to make us happy or sad, exhilarated or depressed? Do you know someone who has a great job, loving husband, great circle of friends and a lovely home and is always depressed because they are not as thin as they would like to be? How about someone who has all of the above except no issue with weight but is single? Or maybe they are underemployed or living in the “wrong” neighborhood. Why are we constantly agonizing over the one aspect of our life that we wish were different?

I tend to do this myself from time to time. Sometimes my issue is being single (and involved in the always difficult long distance relationship); sometimes it’s financial (I’m working so hard, why aren’t I advancing faster?). When I recognize that I am getting depressed about one aspect of my life I count down the list of all my blessings. It doesn’t usually cure my melancholy but it does help put it in perspective. Luckily I usually snap out of it fairly quickly. I hate it when I allow one aspect of my life to negatively overshadow everything that I have accomplished.

During some dark times in my past I picked up the habit of making myself give thanks for something as I went to sleep each night. Sometimes the sun coming up or seeing a butterfly in the garden was all I could think of for which to be thankful. Still, it was something. No matter how down I was I never failed to come up with at least one or two things and this practice always lightened my spirit. The ability to be thankful during the worst of times is a good habit to develop. I’m happy to say that my list is much longer these days.

In an effort to curb my tendancy to negatively focus on one aspect of my life I’m trying to live more in the moment. I’m trying to stop worrying so much about what may or may not happen. I’m trying to remind myself that stewing, fretting and being depressed will not make an appreciable difference on my future. Most of all, I’m trying to be thankful for all the good things in my life. Sometimes it’s hard but I’m not giving up.

How (and why) do you weight the various blessings in your life? What aspect of your life do you tend to be negative about and what are you doing to counteract that negativity?