Blessing Your Reality

Bless a thing and it will bless you. Curse it and it will curse you. … If you bless a situation, it has no power to hurt you, and even if it is troublesome for a time, it will gradually fade out, if you sincerely bless it. –Emmet Fox

As Sarah Ban Breathnach so neatly puts it, “Over the years my easiest and most joyous lessons have been learned through blessing. If you’re sick and tired of learning life’s lessons through pain and struggle, blessing your difficulties will show you there’s a better way.”

When we begin to approach our life-problems as challenges rather than punishments, opportunities rather than evils, then they lose their power to diminish and oppress us. When we learn how to bless our reality, we begin to move through our lives with a sense of wonder and gratitude, trust and abundance. Here is one way to start:

You can start by counting your blessings! Make an inventory of all the blessings in your life that you can think of, seeing if you can get to one hundred. When we write down our blessings, our attention is focused on the abundance that already fills our lives.

Then begin to look back on past situations or events that felt like difficulties at the time. Seen from the perspective of where you are now, what did you learn from that situation or event? What were the benefits? How did you grow?

Now look at anything in your life presently that you perceive as a problem. How could blessing and then dealing constructively with this problem strengthen or teach you?

Read more: Spirit, Guidance, Inspiration, Self-Help, blessing, invocation

Inspired by Simple Abundance, by Sarah Ban Breathnach (Time-Warner Books, 1995).

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Nils Anders L.

3:14AM PDT on Apr 13, 2013

:-) Thank you.......

April 13
send a green star

Fi T.

2:36AM PST on Feb 12, 2013

If we remember to appreciate

February 12
send a green star

Bonnie M.

1:13PM PST on Dec 9, 2011

For many years now, I start my day and end it with a prayer of gratitude for the blessings of yesterday and today. Tomorrow will take care of itself if I take care of me today. I bless the beauty around me, the family and friends, the peace and freedom I enjoy. Problems are challenges and can be a stepping stone to something good. Have faith that I will make it strongly and reassuredly through a new day.

December 9
send a green star

Jennifer C.

8:42PM PST on Nov 30, 2011

Blessings! Thanks for sharing.

November 30
send a green star

Carole R.

11:23PM PDT on Sep 18, 2011

Thanks for your post. So true.

September 18
send a green star

Brenda T.

7:41AM PDT on May 8, 2011

Very wise words.

May 8
send a green star

KS G.

12:50AM PST on Nov 28, 2010

Thanks for the article.

November 28
send a green star

Sandra Q.

11:04AM PST on Dec 8, 2009

If someone said "I curse you, until you do right by me." Is that wrong?

December 8
send a green star

Sofie M.

11:13AM PST on Nov 22, 2009

Or, sans blessing, time eases all difficulties, as everything, after all, is only temporary.

I wonder, though, about the substantial truth of heartfelt blessings applied to shitty circumstances (Jesus admonished us to love our enemies, and I take this to mean circumstances as well as individuals). I'm going to start that list ....

November 22
send a green star

Sarah M.

7:49AM PST on Nov 20, 2009

The idea of counting a difficult situation as a blessing reminds me very much of my mom's repeated advice: "Rise above it." I wonder if consciously deciding to view adversity as a gift can reduce the stress of that adversity.