Where Attention Goes, Energy Flows

I have been keeping a gratitude diary for the past 80 days and just focussing on the things I appreciate in my life has kept me positive, even during these really challenging times.

I think this tweet from Yasmin Mogahed illustrates it perfectly:

“There’s a simple, but powerful psychological principle: what you focus on grows.

To demonstrate this principle in many of my classes, I share the example of a photo with two little boys.

On the top is a picture of a little boy holding one slice of cake and beaming with joy.

Just underneath that photo is another picture of a boy holding an entire cake with 13 slices, but just one slice is missing. So that boy is sad.

When you examine this scenario, you recognize that the boy who is sad actually has much more cake than the boy who is happy. How can that be?

Simply put, the boy who is happy has less, but he is focused on what he has, so he is full of joy. The boy on the bottom is focused on what is missing, so he is sad.

When we focus on our blessings, they enlarge and we feel rich and content. And happy. When we focus on what’s missing in our lives, problems, negativity, we feel poor–no matter how much we actually have.”