Your Attitude Determines Your Reality

Mastering the Art of Feeling Good Intro Series: Part-4

Has it ever occurred to you that your mental attitude has more to do with your state of happiness than just about anything else? Think about it. Your attitude is how you think about a thing or occurrence; it's your perception of it. So basically, the attitudes that you carry are the way that your being is approaching anything that you encounter in life.

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A lot of our attitudes are handed down from those who raised us and from the systems that we participated in as we developed through childhood. Many we adopted, because we didn't know anything else. Then there were times that we've created our own attitude toward something based on how it was interpreted and made us feel inside. The key word there was interpreted. Your thoughts create your feelings.

People have been telling us throughout our lives to: "Watch your attitude. You better adjust your attitude. Stop giving me that attitude." There are a couple of reasons for that. One is that opposing attitudes create conflict and non-cooperation. Another is telling you that your attitude may not be serving you well. So let's examine the latter...

If many of our attitudes were adopted during our formative years, then we may be walking around with thoughts that aren't even our own. Maybe you've never even given much thought to some, just accepted what was being passed out. This is not uncommon unfortunately. In childhood it often serves you to "go along to get along" with your authority figures.

Your challenge now is to decide what's serving you and what isn't. Now that you're an adult, you get to determine what's best for you. Think about your attitudes that are creating your perceptions (how your being interfaces with life) and determine how you really want to think about things. You create your own happiness, misery, joy and opposition. How do you want to look at the world? How do you want to feel about your world? What do you want your reality to be?

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You enter into most situations now with a predetermined attitude toward it, yet you are also forming new ones when experiencing something for the first time. This demonstrates that you are free to self-examine, redetermine and replace your attitude about anything at any time. So go ahead; and base it on what feels good to you and what doesn't.

One attitude worthy of showcasing is one of gratitude and appreciation. Those who make it their intention, or conscious decision, to find the gratitude and appreciation for what's in their lives and in the world around them, are the ones that feel good more often than not. They see the world differently than those who find fault in most things, or what's wrong, or what's lacking. Consider doing a daily Gratitude List to keep yourself in this much preferred state of existence.