Hello, and welcome to the next lecture in the course, the last area of the course was when we went over the actual practices of gratitude. And I included the PDF of the practices of gratitude in it as well. And in this section, I want to include a best practice for enhancing all the practices of gratitude. And so, the creative gratitude concept is also known as making limited opportunities and durable. You can be creative when it comes to positive things well enough, but how do you figure out the blessings in a rough or a challenging situation that can be a little bit more challenging? And so, basically, you know, how do you find those you practice creative gratitude, which is looking at and reflecting on the challenging situations in unique and original ways.

And so this requires reflection. brainstorming and conversation to figure out what you can be grateful for at those times. And so it isn't always easy, but it can be done. And so for example, in a Thomas Hardy novel, there's a character named Elizabeth Jane Newson. A lot of his characters are tragic characters. And in this case, she's an exception.

In a way she lives a life that would trouble many people. Her mother takes her across the country in England in search of relatives she's never met, they don't have anybody else. And then when settling in a new town that she knows no one and her mother unexpectedly dies. And she has no one in the world. She's just there by herself. There's nobody to go to in another town.

And then she had met a young man and they had fallen in love and her lover rejects her for another woman. So she's got every reason to be very depressed and very distraught. And so but what Thomas Hardy calls making limited opportunities in durable. That's what she does. She has no one in the world when her lover rejects her for that other woman yet, you know, she finds the good in the situation and moves on and tries to find peace in her life where she's at. And so while direct thanks in that situation might not be apparent, she does get on with her life and make the most out of the situation, in order to tolerate a difficult situation she must self soothe.

And yes, she must learn to find the good in a situation where loss is just unimaginable and love is scarce. And somehow though her character manages to do so, and we've probably all read about or known someone that you would probably consider of extraordinary character who's been able to do the same to seemingly make something out of nothing. Now, that's an extreme situation, but it shows you how creative gratitude can be practiced. Have you ever observed where Two people may be going through similar experiences and one that are especially difficult. Perhaps they are even going through the same challenge, and one person experiences despair, the situation weighs heavily on them and it seems to take its toll. And then the other person is not free from distress entirely.

But the other person seems to function and ride through the storm, with at least their functionality and sense of humor intact. And the lines of Elton John's Circle of Life resonate in situations like that some of us sail through our troubles, some have to live with the scars. And so while the ability to make limited opportunities and durable can be naturally more difficult for some people than other, I'm one of those other people, it is more difficult for me. Everyone though, has the capacity to determine that while the situation is it pretty maybe it even sucks that you don't have to deny that but you can make up your mind to endure the situation to self sooth through the difficulty and to choose not to give up in despair in the situation. And so gratitude plays an important role here, because such people go out of their way to be creative to look for mercies in a situation.

And some people may even resist using the word good. And that's okay. Because it might be a tragedy or setback, but they are always able to find some peace and knowing things could be worse. I know that's not a very good thing to think about. But they are also able to find some peace in knowing that they can find strength and that there's good that you know, things may be bleak even in some situations, but it can be, they can find a source of stability and strength even in that, an example of that back to a personal situation. When I was 21, my grandfather died of cancer and I've never lost anyone close to myself since then.

Sorry before the end, and so I didn't Know what that was like. But in that situation despite the tragedy, my family drew together and spent a lot of key family time together low key family time after his death. And while the situation was sad, I was thankful for the time with my family, and how peaceful it was, and that I was able to be thankful that the family handled the grieving process in such a positive and non judgmental way. Each person was left free to deal with the death in their own way. And I was also able to be grateful that my papa was not suffering anymore. And that, you know, he had died in May in some health of warm weather and the bright and beautiful.

Everything around being in full bloom somehow made it easier to deal with sitting outside on my grandmother's porch where there was just some peaceful moments to pass the time during that difficult time. And if that had not occurred, you know, if you did curtain winter, for example, it might have added to the gloominess So that was something in the situation even though it was tragic that I could be grateful for. And then the situation with Mary Jane Newsome in the Tom Hardy novel, in my situation with my grandfather or examples of making limited opportunities endurable, Sometimes simply by focusing on and even meditating on if necessary, what made the situation better, and even meditating on what made it endurable, and some would use the words good and blessing in a tragedy. And that takes strength. So you know, that's totally your choice. If you're not able to do that, that's fine.

But maybe reliefs and peace are just as fine of words to use in those situations. So where there, whatever applies to you in that situation, use those words, but it's still a practice of gratitude and of making limited opportunities and durable in creative ways. And some of those practices in the practices of gratitude can help you to find the concepts that you're looking for to Do that and to endure that and to find those. And so, that is the end of this lecture and we will be moving to quick win three in the next lecture and that will be making gratitude a priority rocks in a jar.