A few additional thoughts:

Okay, you may be thinking…

…“this one’s a bit cliché.”

Trite.
Pollyanna.
Not for you.

I understand. This nugget of guidance is easy to dismiss – if you have never actually done the digging it requires.

(If you have put it into practice, then you already know it can be a life-changer.)

The challenge is:
Once you have some distance from a difficult, hurtful, usually unexpected, always unwanted, awful event that happens in your in your life, can you find a way to be grateful that it occurred?

Yadda, yadda, yadda… silver lining… blah, blah… rose colored glasses.

Yes, but.

If you can only perceive your awful events as “awful”, they will be way more difficult to ever “get over” or “let go of” or heal.

Which means they’ll become little holes in your heart where energy leaks out.

And even if your energy is escaping in very small drips, over the span of your life, those drips of wasted energy will add up.

(Especially as more of those little heart-holes are formed.)

Though it may take some time, you can eventually plug those holes with gratitude.

If you give this soul-stretching challenge a try, I think you’ll soon realize that, while gratitude for the wonderful stuff is necessary, gratitude for the worst stuff is liberating.

And, during those times when you’re in the thick of it all, try to remember these wise words (attributed, with some debate, to John Lennon):

Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.

Onward!