Have you ever been to a nice restaurant, had a delicious dinner in a beautiful environment with great service, then received a bill that nearly made you fall out of your seat? How did that change your mood? Did you walk out of the restaurant raving about the experience or lamenting over the bill?

Why do we tend to focus on the negative aspects of a situation or experience? Why, in the case of the restaurant, was it easier to hone in on how steep the bill was rather than immerse ourselves in the delicious the food, beautiful the ambience or the hospitable the service? Because the human brain is wired for a single purpose – survival. The mind is not designed to make you happy, it’s designed to help you survive. It is always looking for what could hurt you, and it magnifies the bad. And we are wired to operate out of a place of scarcity and fear. But here’s the thing – you have the choice of what to focus on. Remember, what’s wrong is always available, but so is what’s right.

Life will never go as planned. There will always be undesirable surprises. But rather than telling yourself that you have either lost something, have less of something, or will never have what it is you want, make the command decision to focus on adopting an abundance mindset and focusing on what you can be grateful for.

This doesn’t mean you are repressing your emotions or living in a state of denial. It simply means you are making the overarching decision to live in a beautiful state every single day, no matter what happens. Because if the only time you are happy is when things are going your way, you’re not going to be happy very often. And the more you start to make these subtle shifts, the more you can cultivate a sense of abundance, the more you will begin to experience joy, and, eventually, create a new emotional home.