|  Part of the process of shifting our attention from the negative to the positive is to recognize what we already have that is good. In his book The Power of Now, Echkart Tolle says to ask, “What in this moment is lacking?” Well, a powerful extension of that exercise is to look around and ask, “What do I have to be grateful for?”
I use this technique a lot. When I’m feeling down or discouraged, I often look around and start finding all the good things in my life and start saying, “Thank you, God” for everything in my life that I have or that’s going right. Most of the time we have a lot more to be grateful for than we have to be worried about. My attitude starts improving right away. Here’s what I think about when economic difficulties come. In the worst times of my life, I’ve still had central heating, hot and cold running water and a roof over my head. How many millions of people in the world don’t have these things? I’ve never had to go to bed hungry, except by choice when I’ve been fasting. Half of the world goes to bed hungry. I live in a land of relative freedom. How many countries live under cruel dictatorships? And, I can go on and on. The truth is that most “poor” Americans are far better off than half of the people living in the world today. Marketing has convinced most Americans that the only way to be happy is to have more “stuff.” But, if that was true, then Americans would be the happiest people on earth. We are not. We have some of the highest rates of depression on the planet. Many people with a tenth of what we enjoy are actually happier than we are. Now, let me tell you the most powerful part of this secret. It’s not easy to put into practice, but it really works. Be thankful for your problems, too. I learned this secret from a little book called Sons of God by Christine Mercie. I came to understand that if we could see our problems from God’s perspective, we would get down on our knees and thank Him for everything we had been privileged to suffer. I started trying to do this. It wasn’t easy at first, but I did it. I would say, “Thank you God for this problem (or difficulty). Please help me to learn the lessons you want me to learn from this challenge in my life.” Something miraculous happens when you do this. It’s beyond focusing on the good things in our life and being grateful for them. It’s a change in perspective that helps you start seeing everything that happens in your life as a good thing, at least in the idea that it is good for you because it con... | 
