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As a twenty-year-old honors college student, would you believe I’ve had brain surgery twice, three brain tumors, and seven trips to the emergency room for life-threatening seizures? I bet it’s even harder for you to believe that I consider such events my greatest blessings. Dealing with these circumstances advanced me so far forward emotionally and spiritually and all of this growth was possible because of my attitude. Attitude is everything!
Thoughts create ideas, ideas stir feelings, feelings produce action, and action generates results. Your attitude determines the nature of your thoughts. Therefore, your results are directly proportional to your attitude. A positive attitude generates positive results and positive results reinforce a positive attitude. If you knew how powerful your thoughts were you would never think a negative thought again! Your mind hears every word you speak and will move in the direction of the words you choose.
The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human
being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.
You can change your attitude and no longer be a victim of circumstance. If I can see a life threatening illness in a positive light, then I can see any situation in a positive light. Now, I certainly do not wish an illness or hardship on anyone. You don’t have to have brain surgery to understand lessons I’m sharing with you. It is not what happens to you that matters- it is how you react to what happens to you.
I am not better than you. I don’t have any superpowers that you do not have yourself. This superpower is the mind. We all have the same capability to change our attitude. This ability to change our perception is what makes us different for animals; between stimulus and response there is a choice. Animals act on instinct because they don’t have a choice. You have the power to choose a positive response or a negative response.
I was sixteen years old, a junior in high school and a neurologist told me that there was a mass in my brain and it needed to come out. Instead of seeing the situation as a curse, I saw it as a challenge- a chance to show everyone, including myself, what I was made of. I never considered myself sick or ill, and this attitude is the reason why I recovered so quickly. Looking back I noticed that with each successive tumor and surgery it became progressively easier. The second surgery was easier than the first. And I didn’t even need surgery the third time around- I healed myself!
Your attitude toward the world and everything in it will determine the world’s attitude toward you. The world responds positively to positive people, and the world needs positive people. Positive people are also grateful people. You have so much going for you. You live in a free country; you have your health, a beautiful body, a roof over your head, parents that love you, so why not have an attitude of gratitude?
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
It will affect your life span, your career, and even your overall happiness. This is now a fact thanks to a study from the two American Universities. Researchers followed how 1500 people aged by measuring such things as weight loss, walking speed, exhaustion and the strength of their grip. They found that people who maintained a positive attitude were significantly less likely to show signs of aging, they were less likely to become frail and were more likely to be stronger and healthier than those that had a negative attitude. Researchers found that a positive thinking and attitude improved a person’s health because it made it more likely that they would succeed in life.
You determine your attitude because your attitude will determine your life. If you are not convinced that the difference between where you are and where you want to be is your attitude, understand this- that it is the power of attitude that permits me to be here today, alive and well.
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Copyright 2009, Amanda Jones
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