Negativity vs. Gratitude

I went to the Forester Lecture that was...last night, I guess, since I'm writing this blog at like 2:21 in the am. Darn you NaNoWriMo, making me stay up late to write!!!

Anyway, I usually only write about one thing I got out of a lecture or a movie or something since that's probably the thing I took away from it that was most important to me. Now I'm just rambling and I probably won't make any sense. I need to go to bed soon.

Okay, so basically one of the things that was said was that there is a certain place in the brain, I think that it's where our fears are stored, where negativity and gratitude cannot coexist. It's difficult to replace all that negativity with gratitude, and it's a process that can take some time, but I know that it is possible. My best friend and I were discussing it afterwards, and it clarified for us why people in third world countries seem so happy even though they basically have nothing. It's because they are so grateful for what they have that there's no room to be negative about it. Every day that they wake up and are able to live is something that they're grateful for. And then you compare that to us, Americans, who are able to view things so negatively. Especially superficial things, like cars or houses, or jobs, or what type of cell phone we have. To be honest it completely disgusts me, the types of things we worry about on a daily basis. They aren't necessities, they aren't supposed to be all that important, yet they are.

I feel like if we could just be grateful for what we have instead of looking at it negatively and comparing it to what someone else has then our society would be much more productive and happier.

And now this post is over. Yay! Oh my goodness, it's now 2:35...I need sleep.