Daily Gratitude: “The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.”

I’ve written about this before but it’s so important that it bears repeating.

It’s funny. As I’ve been trying to vary my Vol State training route to combat the boredom I feel, I am traveling along the access road of a major loop here in San Antonio. It’s a loop that is constantly backed up for construction and seems to enrage or discourage so many drivers, myself included.

But now I’m able to walk on this access road because, lo and behold, they’ve added a sidewalk. This is the one thing of late that has brought me great joy. It’s only a tiny part of what the construction was all about, but it’s helped me see the value of construction despite the headaches. And next time I’m stuck in traffic with construction, I’ll be able to think of my walks and change my mood from unhappiness to understanding and compassion. I know you’re wondering how i can have compassion for construction but I do, especially the workers.

It’s all about how I’m thinking about the situation. If I stay upset, then it’s not making my day any better and it’s expending a lot more energy. If I think about the good results of what they’re doing then I’ll smile and my mood will be elevated and my energy level will rise as well.

Experiment with this. See if you can do it with little things and then move on to bigger ones.