Chapter 2 – The Gratitude Effect
He shares an interesting story of a mother who prayed desperately that her son be safe and excel in life. Her son was a dirt bike rider and very good at what he did. He won many competitions and was getting to the top of his game. He was the sort of person that was passionate and excelled at what he did. As you can imagine, this mother prayed to any god she knew, that he would break his neck while competing in such a dangerous sport. Then one day the worst happened. He had a major accident that nearly took his life. He scrapped through and became partially paralysed.
The mum felt angry with god, as though god had not listened to her demands to keep her son safe. She was depressed for a very long time.
On his long road to recovery, the son became aware of how helpful chiropractic was for him. He decided to study it and became passionate about it. He opened up his own clinic and became very successful, helping many people along the way. He was so financially successful, he opened up his own dirt bike company. This all unfolded as a result of the accident. All in divine order.
The moral of the story is if you don’t look for the hidden gem in every situation, you are missing a major sources of happiness. Staying in victim mode, anger and blaming condemn you to a place of suffering. John shares that there is a blessing in every experience, that there is some divine order. While this isn’t always easy to see, and it often unfolded over time, it is always there. In psychology we explore the post traumatic growth with our clients. This is the learning, and positive psychological outcomes from a traumatic experience.
Some key points John is making :
- No matter what happens in life – count your blessings.
- Every crisis has a blessing.
- Looks for the blessings early on and not wait.
- See the hidden order in the chaos of life.
- When people get angry at god, they are project their own fantasies on god.
- See the true order and be grateful for what is what it is.
“Wisdom is seeing the hidden magnificence and knowing there is nothing out of order in the first place” John Demartini
Marianne Love