Hello, and welcome to the next lecture in the course. And in this lecture, we're still continuing in Section two, covering some of the ways that gratitude can change your perspectives on life. And in this lecture, we will discuss how gratitude in difficulties can bless you, in some cases, more than someone who has fewer difficulties. Now, your first response to that might be, you know, that's crazy. That doesn't make sense. And it may seem counterintuitive at first, but I have some demonstrations and some examples that I will show you that can actually back this up.

This is not by the way to condone hardships, but everybody experiences hardships and so if you can't avoid them, then why not get benefits from them and pay forward benefits to other people from them as well. And so, there's a quotation I want to share with you first by Elisabeth Kubler Ross, and I want to read it off my computer screen because it is kind of long to memorize but let me share it with you to explain What this concept means, she says the most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss and have found their way out of the depths. And the person's have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that feels them with compassion, gentleness and a deep love and concern. Beautiful People do not just happen and that's true, beautiful people are cultivated just like gratitude is and beautiful people are grateful people as corny as that sounds.

So this course is about you, the student and how gratitude can change your life if you have experienced disappointments, setbacks, challenges, depression or even trauma in your life. This course is about your life, however, to demonstrate that setbacks and difficulties can bless you more than not having a personal experience is the best way for me to demonstrate this. And so as you listen to the story, think about experiences in your own life, and how they compare to my experience, of course, yours is unique just like money is mine is simply one experience, and I can say is that I'm a highly flawed person, I don't deny that. And I'm learning these principles myself right along with you, but I want to share with you and pay forward some of the hardships I've had, so that they can help you as well. The best way to learn something is to teach it.

And so I share my experience. There's a book called your erroneous zones by Wayne Dyer. And so that's where I got this phrase from, why I'm grateful for my erroneous zones. Many spiritual principles in different traditions seem to be full of paradoxes, things that are counterintuitive, or where the opposite of two things is true and logical at the same time. For example, the first shall be last whoever loses their life shall save it. And that is why you know why a lot of these things that don't seem true and seem counterintuitive actually are true.

And in the new title, testament Paul said, that is why for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses in insults and hardships in persecutions in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. And for that verse That's a hard one to accept and to believe. For a lot of people. Understandably, nobody wants to wallow in misery. Nobody wants to have hardships.

Nobody wants to have a thorn in their flesh, like Paul had, Paul of Tarsus, the the apostle. But for the longest time, this verse make no sense to me, and understandably so. And it did not seem to serve a clear purpose. What does it mean? In one sense, it doesn't mean for Christian believers that they rejoice in just difficulties. But it means to rejoice in difficulties because there's a reward in the next life.

But there also seems to be more going on here than that, that can be applied very universally. If you try to wrap your mind around this verse. It makes no sense and yet the words of Paul have haven't survived for 2000 years. By being unwise or untrue, it was only through years of difficulties, depression and disappointments that this first began to make sense to me experientially. And so my story isn't to evoke sympathy or to be dramatic, but to show how difficulties can be transformed into great blessings with the right perspective. I would never volunteered to take voluntarily take on being what some one might call being a highly sensitive person to sensory stimuli, or someone who needs more self care.

But I am that kind of person. I am someone who is prone to depression, deep introspection and anxiety. And so higher self care is necessary and that's just part of it. nor would I wish it on anyone else. But there are times when in the next room is full of people and I feel like I'm the only person left on earth at the end of the world. And that is what depression feels like.

And so from my point of view, God is probably even had to move shelves into his office to keep all of the jars of my tears that I've shared over the years. And I don't say that to be dramatic, it's simply the truth, it's part of depression. But in spite of the crippling effects of those circumstances, I can choose to look at it in a different light. For example, like any experiences, one cannot alter, there are blessings to be taken from difficulty. And I believe that in some control that each person has over the process of distilling those things in their life occurs, mental processes that you choose to direct into person, your person will become the outcome of the entire situation and how you synthesize the experience into the sales of your body, your brain, your attitude and energies can actually change the situation. And it can actually, it's like a spiritual alchemy, it takes dirt and turns it into gold or takes ashes and turns it into roses because it's fertilizer for new life to grow in your life.

And it makes it richer and more beautiful than it could have been without that fertilizer. But like any past experiences, though, for instance, when I see anyone going through a difficult situation, that's especially difficult, for example, the death of a loved one struggling to care for a disabled child dealing with chronic illness, I used to feel nothing for them. It's sad. I hate to admit it, but it's true. I expected too much for myself, and perhaps it was even a bit of vanity and narcissism. I wanted to be empathetic.

And even though I thought that it was supposed to be in my makeup of characteristics, along with being artistic, sensitive, emotional, the fact is, I wasn't empathetic, and I knew it. And through the ringer of disappointments, stresses and depression, the peaks and valleys of the experiences, deepen the chasms in my spirit and carved out higher mountains from all the volcanic activity in my life, that left spaces open for compassion to feel those hollow areas. And so I became more empathetic when pain became a daily experience, and I could close my eyes and dreams that I begin to know what other people felt who experienced the same thing in their own way. And so that actually opened me up to compassion because I felt so much I could feel sort of what other people were feeling too. And so when I think about my experiences of deep and persistent depression and disappointment, I now have more understanding of those who have experienced betrayal and abuse or sadness or disappointment.

I also have more compassion for those who try hard and fail because I know what that feels like. And I appreciate the gifts of experience that distilled hurts into healing and if given that to me, because that enables me to help you and to heal and to help others heal as well. And my healing experience continues, but my experiences made me respond to others and further disappointments, like a trapped animal at first, but as I started to do healing work on those hurt places, in the gratitude, consuming love replaced consuming hurt. So I receive beauty for my ashes. That's a term that Joyce Meyer, um, I don't know if she coined it, but she has a book called beauty for ashes. And so in other words, anything in our lives that is difficult if we allow it to help us grow, to be open to that to seek help in healing it properly, and it can give us a storehouse of wisdom, compassion and perspective.

And so someone who has not experienced those levels of difficulty may not have that perspective may not have that depth of understanding and compassion. Sometimes they may have a gift for that. But in most cases, people that have been through the wringer understand what other people who are going through the wringer are feeling because they have more compassion, depth and wisdom in many cases. And so, I'm very thankful for the lack of acceptance that allowed me to come into knowing my true gifts slowly. I want it to be all things to all people and I slowly begin to accept that I'm good at certain things and not at others. I'm an introvert Not an extrovert.

I'm sensitive and empathetic but not a savior of the world. I'm intuitive and thorough, but not organized and concise. And so you can be grateful for your unique gifts and accept yourself as you are and not be trying to be perfect, not try to be all things to all people. And exploring all the sides of myself, including my dark side gave me a deeper understanding just as much that I have what I'm not as much as what I am. And so seeing more of the emotional terrain inside and outside has given me a deeper understanding and deeper perspective of myself and others and of human nature. And I'm grateful for honesty, which sometimes isn't sweeter, soothing, because honesty, sometimes it's harsh, but that's what helps us to grow in those situations.

And so admitting your weaknesses and mistakes can be like talking with sand in your throat at first, but even a little, a few of those experiences reminded me that I can be judgmental, sometimes of the same things on a different scale of something I haven't yet mastered towards somebody else and so That helps me to realize that being judgmental of others is just a way to compensate for insecurities and flaws. And so difficulties help us to open ourselves up to grow, to have more compassion, and to have a deeper perspective. And so I'm grateful for the truth, even when there's a mountain of sand of it blowing in my face. And that's what I think it means. When Paul says, For when I am weak, I am strong, because in our weaknesses, we become strong, and it sounds so cliche, but showing how that process is to steal, I think really clarifies that.

And so thank you for bearing with me through this long lecture. And I will see you in the next quick when at the end of section two. And that one will be how a sacrifice of gratitude and hardship can transform your situation. And so we're taking what's in this lecture and putting into practice in the next lecture. So I'll see you there.