How Gratitude Enriches Your Blended Family

"A single grateful thought raised to heaven is the most perfect prayer." - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Taking on a gratitude attitude can do wonders for your personal relationships and your family! One of the worst "diseases of attitude" is complaining. When you moan, you are not only focusing on what is wrong, you are also making sure everyone else around you is focusing on what is wrong too. The bad part about complaining is that you only add to whatever is wrong.

By shifting your thoughts to what is "right" and good in all problems -- you will now find out that every event is not on one side or another and it is your thoughts that make it a negative situations or not.

So, next time you see yourself displeased in the way a problem was taken care of learn from what happened and decide if something could happen differently in the future. Stretch yourself and think of how it would be if you were grateful that the problem turned out the way it did. Maybe you can feel "freed" from a problem a lot worse. Let yourself to feel gratitude towards what just happened and everything that it gave you maybe you could discover the good thing in it for you.

At the last hour of each day, I take some time to review my day and prepare for the next. Some of my review is where I feel gratitude for the blessings I received maybe it was in the shape of an unexpected phone call from a person in my vision team; maybe it came in the shape of book orders; or possibly an email from a person I touched with my newsletter. These are all reminders about why I do what I do. By connecting in with the blessings that I had to do with, I get refueled for the next days agenda. Hopefully you can feel the same way I do!

Emily Bouchard, has over 18 years of experience in dealing with children and families dealing with adversity. She has a Master's Degree in Social Work and a Bachelor's degree in Child Development. Emily is also a caring stepmother to two young women who were teenagers when she entered their lives. She publishes a free Blended Families newsletter.