Have you ever had someone respond to your troubles with something like, "Well, I choose to focus on gratitude and what I do have versus what I don't." Ouch! Gratitude is an amazing, and necessary, emotion. Expressing gratitude can do much to improve our lives. However, it can also be a trap. If we constantly force ourselves to put a positive spin on anything that happens, we can repress our feelings versus processing them. We can also stagnate in our personal development because we feel guilty for wanting more in our lives. Be grateful. Be tremendously and profoundly grateful. But don't feel bad about yourself is you are both grateful and experiencing a struggle. Life is full of duality and a "but-and" attitude can help us to acknowledge difficulties, and still process our pain. 

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