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Gratitude unlocks the
fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial
into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a
feast, a house into a
home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace
for today, and creates a
vision for tomorrow.
Melody Beattie
Gratitude is our natural response when we receive something of
value. This acknowledgement occurs in various areas of life:
 | Mental. We acknowledge that we have received something of value. In
contrast, an ungrateful person does not acknowledge the value nor the giver.
Gratitude is primarily an experience of the emotions, while the mind is
experiencing appreciation and significance. |
| Emotional. Gratitude is a response of happiness and warmth when we
receive something of value but the emotion does not occur only within us. We
also seek to evoke that happiness with the giver, perhaps by smiling, and
saying, "Thank you.". |
| Physical. It is a sense of commitment to give gifts in return.
Gratitude is a bonding among fellow humans in a world where our material
needs are fulfilled by one another. |
| Spiritual. Gratitude is our childlike thankfulness for the miracle of
life and for the amazing capacity of life to satisfy our needs. When we
enjoy this flow of life, we are grateful for the things that we receive, and
we are also grateful for opportunities to give. |
Gratitude does not occur simply because we gave or received a material
object. Gratitude is ultimately based in the joy of participating in life. We
can be grateful to someone even if we paid for the person's service. This
gratitude is toward life itself, as it satisfies our needs through this person.
In gratitude, we transcend the material transaction, to experience spirit
itself.
The benefits of gratitude.
Gratitude generates a pleasant sensation within us. When we are grateful, we
experience happiness, fulfillment, peace of mind, and a flow of love which is the
literal flow of energy from us to the other person or object.
| Gratitude offers a means by which we can counteract unwanted psychological
states, such as:
 | Greed and envy. Gratitude helps us to achieve emotional satisfaction
in the ownership of our current possessions. Gratitude is a type of savoring. If we do not achieve emotional satisfaction with our current
possessions, we futilely try to achieve that satisfaction with the mere
ownership of more possessions and we experience greed and envy. We will
never feel contentment with regard to our goods until we savor them,
through emotional actions such as gratitude. |
| Worry and fear. Gratitude helps us to be more aware of the many gifts
that we receive. We do not worry as much about the flow of gifts that will
occur in the future. When we are grateful, we dwell on the present moment,
and the goodness of the past, instead of the uncertainty of the future. |
| Grief. As we recognize the many gifts that we receive, we enhance our
ability to release the things that have disappeared from our life, and to
turn our attention to the current flow. |
| Vanity. Gratitude reminds us that we do not live alone. We survive
only because we are constantly receiving goods from people, from nature, and
from spirit. We experience humility as we view the awesome movement of goods
into our personal world. Gratitude helps us to perceive ourselves as a part
of a benevolent system. We become more conscious of the many things that we
receive from other people, from nature, and from other sources and we notice
the times when we give within this system. As we pay attention to the giving
and receiving, we realize that we are not alone, but rather that our lives
depend on the perpetual giving of others, and we feel a deeper
responsibility to give more of ourselves, to contribute to the process.
Albert Einstein said, "A hundred times every day I remind myself that
my inner and outer life depends on the labors of other men, living and
dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the measure as I have
received and am still receiving". |
| Depression. In depression, we have difficulty in seeing the value in
the world around us. Gratitude can minimize the effect of depression by
reinforcing the goodness. |
| Repression. |
|
| Gratitude helps us to see the positive value in circumstances. In
unpleasant circumstances, we can be grateful for an opportunity to learn a
difficult lesson. Even if we do not perceive a positive value in these
circumstances, we have faith that life is ultimately good and we are grateful
for that goodness. Many people are unhappy when they pay bills. Other people are
happy, because they dwell on their gratitude for the things that they have
purchased. |
| Gratitude increases the possibility that we will receive more goodness in our
life. We can see this effect upon various aspects of life:
| People. When we express gratitude in actions and words such as
"thank you", people are rewarded for their generosity, and they
are more likely to be generous again. |
| Energy. In our expression of gratitude, there is a flow of energy
from us to a person or object. Whenever we increase that flow, we enhance
our life in every way and experience more energy and more awareness of
intuition. When we understand this dynamic, we can express gratitude for
things that we have not yet received. We know that our gratitude helps to
increase the flow of energy that is attracting the thing for which we are
expressing gratitude in advance. |
|
Techniques for developing gratitude
| Design-work. We generate the energy tones such as joy, delight and
pleasure.
| Affirmation. "I appreciate all of the good things in my
life.","I enjoy thanking people for their kindness.". |
| Directed imagination. We can visualize ourselves receiving valued
items, and then smiling, or saying, "Thank you". |
| Modeling We act as if we are grateful when we receive items of
value. The actions can include a smile, a hug, and particular words such as
"This is a wonderful gift!". |
|
| Intuition. When we receive a valued item, intuition can guide us in our
response, including the particular words. Intuition can also determine the
item's value to us, in terms of its enhancement of our life. |
| We can develop our ability to perceive the goodness in our life.
Throughout our day, we are continually giving and receiving often without
noticing these occurrences. If we decide to have an attitude of gratitude, we
become more aware of the people and the subtle events in our life. This creative
game can be played during stressful times, and also when we are otherwise
mentally bored such as while driving or while standing in a line. |
| We can offer gratitude in various aspects of our lives.
| We can be grateful to many things: a person, a deity, nature, life itself. |
| We can be grateful for many things: our home, food, comforts and pleasures,
well-being material, emotional, mental, physical health, sensory delights such
as delicious food, friends, clothing, life itself. |
|
| We can say, "Thank you," when someone gives something to us. We
can write thank you letters to people. We can express gratitude for the gift,
and for the person who gave us the gift. |
| We can acknowledge holidays that focus our attention on gratitude. Such
as Thanksgiving, and Veterans' Day when we express gratitude to veterans who
have defended the nation. |
| We can make a list of things for which we are grateful. We can even have
a gratitude journal, in which we note each day's gifts. |
| We can develop our self esteem. |
| We can review our unpleasant memories, to find factors for which we can
be grateful. In retrospect, we realize that the circumstances were a necessary
part of our education in life. |
| We can achieve a balance in gratitude.
| We can be grateful for the things that we possess, while still working
toward additional goals. We can be grateful for a "B" grade on a
difficult exam, but we still strive for an "A" grade on the next
exam. |
| We can be grateful for the things that we receive, while still being
discriminating. We naturally respond to the value of an object, particularly
if we exerted an effort to obtain that object. |
|
To speak gratitude is
courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live
gratitude is to touch Heaven.
Johannes A. Gaertner
Next topic: Feelings |
