Make your own luck, get grateful!

‘You’re always so lucky’….thats what people often say to me. Am I? How do you know? What is luck? And what is our lifes purpose or destiny? How often do we connect with our real life purpose and how often does it pass us by?

Yoga and other similar systems believe that when you truly connect with what the universe designed you for then things flow more easily, you follow your life purpose and the doors open more easily to allow this to happen. But how do we know what our lives purpose is? We can so easily get distracted by what society wants us to be, or what we believe is expected of us. Home, marriage, ‘proper’ job, 2.4 children, car, wide screen TV, the list goes on. Is this what its all about is this what we are destined for? Is life about those crowds of people we see on black Friday fighting for ‘white goods’, have they got it right? Or is it about something more? Pause and think about it for a while.

Sometimes you get up in the morning and by the evening the whole course of your life can have changed, whether in a difficult and challenging way or in an easy and joyful way (note I am not saying either is good or bad, try not to think of things as good or bad, they just ‘are’). How do we deal with these massive life shifts? Is this luck, or fate or our destiny? There is so much we think we cannot control. But what we can take some control over is how we view these things.

Say something massive happens and its causing me to react in a way that I find hard to cope with, I am negatively emotional, upset, anxious, fearful. How do I then deal with these emotional responses? My point is that how we choose to respond creates the outcome. If we respond with negativity, outcomes will be negative. If we respond with positivity….well, you get the idea. And if we really are so overwhelmed that we cant be positive, we just observe, just allow things to be and wait, because everything passes in time.

I know its not always easy to remain positive or passive in the face of difficulties. But we can all try to keep focused on the good stuff. We live in a society where there is no need to be hungry and cold (a controversial topic I know), where we do have choices and where we can take control over our lives if we wish to. We are all very fortunate, we just need to realise it.

In 2015 I was taught a gratitude meditation. This is the point where it all started to totally shift for me. Its simple, you look in detail at every single thing in your life. Example, the food you eat. You consider the people who cooked it, delivered it it, grew it, their parents, their communities, the sunshine and rain, everything involved. Then we realise the interconnectedness of everything, and how we all are so connected to one another. You apply this attitude to every single aspect of your life and its difficult to not be grateful or amazed by everything. Then you feel so connected that you become optimistic and accepting, because we are all the same. We all want to be happy and content and just to feel ok. Life really is about helping each other, about connecting with one another, about peace and harmony and all of those utopian idealistic statements. Why shouldn’t we be happy and free and peaceful? Why is this often viewed as the easy or soft option, whats wrong with wanting to be happy. And how come if its so easy that more of us aren’t doing it? Maybe its because so many people feel it eludes them, or that initially (before it becomes your normal state)it feels like quite hard work. You can start to get happy and lucky and to change your outlook and your life right now.

Practice gratitude. make a gratitude list, every day. Wake up and think of ten things you are grateful for, from the clothes you wear, to the food you eat, to your home, friends, the trees, birds, life. Practising gratitude changes your perspective, and it makes you feel happier and more positive.  Get grateful for your life. Keep at it, be persistant. Then experience the positive mental attitude developing, then watch how you see things as opportunities, and trust that you can take these opportunities because you are grateful and positive. Then people will remark how lucky you are. Its all a state of mind. We make our own luck.