What's right?

A beautiful face with radiant skin. A single acne mark. Chances are, the girl to whom the face belongs, complains about the little blemish each day instead of feeling gratitude for what is already right.

A wonderful relationship. So many beautiful memories. A single acrimonious quarrel. Perhaps you have actually considered ending the relationship for just that.

When I asked myself, some years ago, why I was so often, so miserable, the answer stunned me. I had expected some complex, deep, karmic revelation. It wasn’t. It was simple. Since childhood I had trained myself to look at what’s wrong, and not at that which was right.

If I got nine out of ten in a spellings test, instead of celebrating the nine rights, I complained about the one wrong. If I had three good friends in class, and there was one girl who didn’t like me, I focused my entire energy on that girl. I didn’t know at that time that wherever goes attention, wherever goes energy, there goes life. Little wonder, by the time I came to the tenth, I had a larger number of people who disliked me and whom I disliked than true friends!

If I did something for my health on five days of the week – and became lethargic on the last two days, I would be upset with myself for that. I would never appreciate what I was doing right, rather I would keep focusing on the wrong, not realizing the profound law of life: wherever goes attention, wherever goes energy, there goes life. Every part of my body was functioning perfectly – just a slight disorder in the right ear and instead of stopping and thanking Life for a beautiful body, I would complain and focus on the little aching part. Little wonder, my entire body had started giving way just a few months ago.

There are hundreds of books on the laws of attractions and scores of gurus who speak of only, and only, focusing on the right. And yet, it has taken a lot of time for this intellectual understanding of the law of life to become a part of my DNA. Perhaps because the training of focusing on what is wrong, began with so many of us as kids itself. In all probability when you were blissfully playing in a room full of adults, no one so much as glanced towards you, but the moment you opened your mouth wide and howled or cried, you were immediately the centre of attraction. Such experiences repeated in and out perhaps trained your subconscious, like they did to mine, to believe that if you need attention you need to be in pain, or be unhealthy, or be unhappy.

Thank God (literally!)  I now realize that life is perfect because it is and not because it fits my definition of perfect. I am able to find something to be happy about by looking for what is right, even on the worst of days. I am able to feel healthy, even if just one part of my body is not functioning to its best capacity. I am able to look for something to appreciate in almost everyone. And what abundance is unfolding into my life. My book, Thank You Cancer, is doing better than I had expected, I feel really good about myself most of the time, my classes for children is a big hit, my relationships are deepening. And I am just waiting… to watch more magic unfold. The mantra is simple, wherever I go, whoever I meet, whatever I do, I will ask myself, what’s right?