I am Grateful....I think

    I’ve often heard people say that you should be grateful for whatever shows up in your life. Some even say that the first step to changing a negative experience into a positive one is to adopt an ‘attitude of gratitude’. I’ll admit that when I am having a bad day, moving into my “Happy Place” is not the easiest thing for me to do. But the idea of being able to change the ‘outside’ by changing the ‘inside’ does appeal to me. That is what gratitude is all about.

    What is “gratitude,” anyway? One definition is: “the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful.”* It is a state of being – which is a very important thing to understand. “Gratitude” is not about doing or having – but simply being. Once you learn to pay attention to what you are being, everything else will come into focus.

   To put it another way: Imagine you are in a room and on the other side of the room, a television is on. There is a wonderful, positive show on with a special message just for you on the screen. You are aware the television is on, but you’re not watching it. You’re not paying attention to what is on the screen, nor are you listening to what is being said. Kind of defeats the purpose of having it on, huh?

   Gratitude works in a similar way. When you focus on it, you begin to see the beautiful ‘show’ that is your life. You realize that in it, you are the star, and you begin to open yourself up to bigger and better possibilities. However, if you don’t focus on being grateful, it means no more to you than the television that is on for the sake of being on. So the thought of watching gratitude happening – like the television you have no intention of watching – seems to serve no purpose.

   Why watch? This may sound weird, but ideas behind watching both the television and gratitude come with the same motivation: We are looking for something good in our lives. And because we have been conditioned to believe that we must ‘do’ something in order to ‘be’ something, we've got to have a process by which we achieve our end result. Let your focus on gratitude serve as the ‘doing’ to move you into the state of ‘being’ –being grateful.

   Maintaining an ‘attitude of gratitude’ may not be easy, but there are a few incentives that make it worth a try:

   1. Being grateful reminds you to count your Blessings. You are more likely to establish a deeper connection with God because you are becoming increasingly aware of how many ways He is Blessing you.

   2. Being grateful invokes a ‘feel good’ sensation. What can be bad about feeling good from thinking positive thoughts?

   3. Positive attitudes are contagious: Spread good vibes! Share with others what you are grateful for. By helping others you are helping yourself, and vice-versa.

   Meditation, prayer, daily affirmations, mantras, and the like are all great ways to help you maintain a sense of gratitude. But just like with anything else, the lesson is only as good as the extent to which you put it into practice. Find a method in which you feel most comfortable learning and stick to it. You’ll be ‘grateful’ you did! :-)