Estimated Read Time: 4 Minutes
The Gratitude Filter
AKA "Let Whatever Happens Be Okay"
By Bill Harris
Do you find yourself (sometimes or often) at the mercy of anger, resentment, stress or jealousy? Let's be honest with ourselves and each other.
Of course you do! Nearly everybody on earth has these feelings from time to time.
But I'm here to tell you that you do NOT have to live at the mercy of your emotions.
With enough awareness, you can CHOOSE to filter your experiences through any emotion––including joy, acceptance and/or gratitude.
Does that sound impossible? Unlikely at best?
It doesn't happen overnight, but it does happen, with enough practice, stillness of mind and awareness.
This notion of "letting whatever happens be okay" is the first of my 9 Principles of Conscious Living. It sets the foundation for a life that is more enriched, happy and fulfilling than you might possibly imagine.
So, let's dive.
Let Whatever Happens Be Okay
Three rules govern the world created by the mind.
Rule #1: Everything changes and eventually passes away.
Rule #2: Sometimes you don't get what you want.
Rule #3: Sometimes you get what you don't want.
You can approach these rules in one of two ways.
The first way is to resist them, fight against them. When you resist, you get angry, stressed, anxious and fearful. You might even behave in ways that have unpleasant consequences.
Wanting things to be different from what they really are is like beating your head against a wall.
Stop fuming, fussing and suffering. It is what it is.
The second way is to let whatever happens be okay. You can accept what is.
You may prefer that things not change, or that you get what you want. You might work to change things — but if you don't succeed, you can accept what is.
In the first method, your happiness and inner peace depend on the outcome being a certain way. When you let whatever happens be okay…
…you are independent of the outcome, and can experience happiness and inner peace regardless.
The amount a person suffers in their life is directly related to how much they are resisting the fact that "things are the way they are."
This has got to be one of the KEY pieces of human wisdom. If there is suffering or discomfort…
…there is resistance to the way things are. Period.
To master this principle, addictions or attachments to things being other than they are must be upgraded to preferences. You prefer things to be such and so, but you're not attached to them being that way. When "what is" is not what you want, you don't suffer over it…
…and your happiness and inner peace are no longer controlled by forces outside of you.
To the degree a person is willing and able to let whatever happens be okay, they do not suffer. It's as simple as that.
People with many rules about how things are "supposed to be" suffer more, because no matter how carefully they protect those rules, the rules are often violated.
This doesn't mean you can't be goal oriented and work toward what you want. The emotionally healthy person prefers the outcome they seek rather than being emotionally attached to it.
They work toward what they want but, whatever the outcome, they maintain their equanimity and inner peace. This is not fatalism, or disinterest in the outcome…
…but rather a decision not to let the outcome throw you off-center.
This is the meaning of upgrading your attachments to preferences — the non-attachment spoken of in Eastern philosophy (and, in other ways, in Christianity and other religions).
The key to handling challenging thoughts, situations, and feelings, then, is not in resisting them…
…but in becoming as fully accepting of them as possible.
Resistance & Discomfort
Here is a key point. It looks as if our discomfort is created by the thing we don't like. In actual fact, the discomfort is caused by our resistance to it.
When we stop resisting, the discomfort stops also.
Everyone has had something happen in their life that they strongly resisted, but ultimately came to terms with: a relationship that ended, for instance. At first, you go through all kinds of suffering…
…but at a certain point you move on and accept what has happened.
At that exact moment, the suffering stops.
It's not what happens that creates our suffering, it's our reaction to it!
By being fully present to, and accepting of, your thoughts and feelings, you open the pathway for the unconscious to…
…reorganize itself to progressively higher levels of functioning.
When you sense discomfort, you are sensing resistance. When you sense resistance, meet it with acceptance.
Awareness Is the Way Out
All of this ends up being nothing but platitudes if you don't take some kind of definite step to put it into practice. So here is one:
Watch yourself, with great curiosity, as you resist. Become more aware of how and when you resist.
Ironically, when you let whatever happens be okay, it's much more likely that you'll get what you want. This is one of the real ironies of personal and spiritual growth:
The less attached you are, the more likely you are to get what you want.
The more you let what happens be okay, the more the universe lines up behind you to help you create whatever it is you're focused on creating.
