[New Series!]

Perspective: A Blessing or a Bother?

Welcome!

Allow me to introduce myself.  I am Jeremy Hawkins. I work at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) as an athletic training educator and have known Lynnie and her family for over a decade through our shared faith community.  I got to know her personally in 2020 when she and I participated in a self-help group on emotional resilience.  We began working professionally together a year ago when she approached me about using her gratitude journals with students at CMU.  It is through that connection the idea of this blog series was formed.

Blessings vs. Hassles

In a 2003 article by Emmons and McCullough, we read about an experiment they conducted during which students were asked to make note of either 5 blessings or 5 hassles.¹ Those in the blessing group were provided these instructions: “There are many things in our lives, both large and small, that we might be grateful about. Think back over the past week and write down on the lines below up to five things in your life that you are grateful or thankful for.”  Examples included were “waking up this morning, the generosity of friends, to God for giving me determination, for wonderful parents, to the Lord for just another day, and to the Rolling Stones.”  The hassles group was told the following: “Hassles are irritants—things that annoy or bother you. They occur in various domains of life, including relationships, work, school, housing, finances, health, and so forth. Think back over today and, on the lines below, list up to five hassles that occurred in your life.”  Examples included for this were “hard to find parking, messy kitchen no one will clean, finances depleting quickly, having a horrible test in health psychology, stupid people driving, and doing a favor for a friend who didn’t appreciate it.” Emmons and McCullough observed that “a conscious focus on blessings may have emotional and interpersonal benefits.” It is from their research that the title of this blog series came to be (with the synonym bother inserted in place of hassle simply because it flowed better and because Winnie the Pooh is a great bear to quote).

Perspective

In starting this blog series, Lynnie and I have the goal of regularly sharing real-life experiences where a shift in perspective has allowed us, or the authors of a given blog post, to take something that might be seen as a hassle (bother) and instead view it as a blessing. For example, when Lynnie was a teenager her dad came home from work one afternoon excited to share that he was grateful that day for a flat tire. Why? Because it had given him an opportunity to make a new friend when a passerby stopped to help. A simple change in perspective had allowed the hassle of a flat tire to become a positive experience–a blessing. 

Lynnie and I believe this shift in perspective can be life-changing. We are learning daily that facing life with an eye for gratitude, though not always easy, is worth the effort, and we hope that you’ll find this to be true for you too.

References

¹ Emmons RA and McCullough ME.  Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2003, 84(2):377-398.