True Gratitude Includes the Ugly Events

It is Thanksgiving in Canada and as we all reflect on what we are grateful for, it's natural to come up with the good ones first - food, family, friends, health, job, etc.

But what about the ugly events in your life that changed you?  Are you grateful you were fired from your job?  Or your lover dumped you? Or ............. fill in the blank?

The ugly ones are the events that make the biggest and most profound changes in our lives.  Yet, they are overlooked when we practice gratitude.

For me, I can look back at the abusive incident my life and I'm grateful for the lessons I learned and in some ways, I'm grateful it happened.

That may sound crazy but it's not.  When that happened and my world fell apart, I had no choice but to rebuild and start over and that's what I'm grateful for because I was forced to look inside for what I wanted in my life.  What felt authentic to me.  What I had left behind that I wanted to reclaim.  How I got sucked into his passions at the expense of my own.

These were life-changing questions and when I dedicated time and energy to answering them in my voice, I discovered who I am and what I wanted in Life.  I found the confidence to move forward into my unstoppable life.

The Ugly Events are the most important moments in our life.  They are the ones that make us pause and think about our own passions and desires.

A little Ugly Events Challenge for Thanksgiving:

• Sit quietly with a cup of tea (or whatever you desire!) and think back to the big, ugly events in your life.
• Write them down and then reflect on what has changed for the better since that day
• Fired but started your own business - gratitude
• Dumped but became clear on what values & attributes your life-partner will have - gratitude
• Dumped but took the time to fall in love with yourself - gratitude
• Totaled the car but got enough insurance money to buy a vintage convertible - gratitude
• For each Ugly Event, write down one significant positive change in your Gratitude Journal
• I am Grateful for the opportunity to start my own business
• Once every month, spend time reflecting on the Ugly Events and writing down one positive change that happened that you are now grateful for

Get Cozy with Your Ugly Events Because They are the Magical Ones

Happy Thanksgiving!