“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” – Dumbledore, J. K. Rowling

In daily life there are so many things that we can’t and are not meant to control. So many areas and situations where we have to just let go and trust God.
But our mindset and the way we choose to see and react to any given situation is something we can control.
We can train ourselves to make positivity and gratitude our default setting – our normal way of living.

You may have observed or read before that sunflowers turn their heads towards the sun. That’s because they’re heliotropic flowers, meaning they grow towards the light. At dawn, fields of sunflowers all face east towards the rising sun and follow its light throughout the day, until its setting in the west.
But at night the sunflowers turn east again, anticipating the sun’s return in the morning.

Nature is setting a beautiful precedent for us there. We were made to focus on the light and to follow it. Even in the darkness the sunflowers don’t despair because their light has disappeared. They simply turn to face east and confidently anticipate the dawn.
The same goes for us. Even on the days when it feels like night, we can still choose to not lose hope and instead choose positivity. Choose to see the light.
We have a choice. We don’t need to just sit back and let whatever feelings we have run our lives.
‘Today I feel depressed so that’s just the way it is…’.
No! We have a choice! We can make a deliberate, conscious decision to turn our heads – our gaze and attention – towards the light.

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses.”

Gratitude is an amazing, powerful tool for resetting and deliberately turning to face the light. It moves your focus away from everything you don’t have or everything that’s going wrong, and fixes your attention on everything you do have. It fixes it on the good. If you start calling to memory and then repeating out loud some of the things you’re thankful for – all of the beautiful things you’ve been given and blessed with – you won’t stay depressed for long.
We have so much to be grateful for. So many reasons to rejoice. So many opportunities to see the light and the good in everyone and everything around us, every day.

And when we do choose to see the light and the good and begin to make that our lifestyle, a daily decision to have a gratitude attitude, we’ll not only notice the positive difference in our own lives but also in the lives of those around us.
Training yourself to live life every day that way means you are constantly focusing on the good in people. You are continually letting thankfulness and gratitude flow out of you. You can be the one who, in difficult situations, sees the light and is able to guide and help others to do the same.

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” -Victor Hugo, Les Miserables