The concept of gratitude is often thought of as a feeling or a state of being (ex. “I feel grateful” or “I am grateful”).
It is also used in reference to people or things (ex. “I am grateful for my friends and family”. Gratitude is less often thought of as an action or something that needs to be practiced. Like a muscle that needs to be worked, with exercise, consistency, and dedication, it can be further developed to reach its full capabilities. Gratitude or gratefulness is a quintessential quality that must be omnipresent in you. You can’t attract what you don’t have yet if you’re not grateful for what you have now.
We have dreams, goals, and desires that we know will make us happier.
“I’ll be happy if…I can leave this job”. “I’ll be happy when…the kids are raised”. “I’ll be happy when…I pay off the house”. And so on. Happiness becomes this elusive thing in the future. But life is not a practice run. This is it. Right here. Right now. Why should we rely on “if” and “when”, since happiness can only be experienced in the now? Why not take happiness along on our journey to achieving our goals? I believe that’s possible if we live life with a grateful heart. Consistently practicing gratitude is the key to a happy and fulfilled life.
As your deepest desires grow within you, view the world with child-like wonder. See people and things with a new and fresh perspective and you will see what you tend to take for granted. See people and things with eyes of gratitude and relate to them with a grateful heart. I believe, as many do, that our thoughts carry a vibration. There are low-frequency vibrations like shame, guilt, fear, anger, hatred, etc. And there are high-frequency vibrations like gratitude, love, bliss, optimism, resilience, and perseverance in the face of disappointment. I also believe that whatever those vibrations are, they attract more of the same back to us.
Gratitude has such a high vibrational frequency that it can change most any state of mind and it can change whatever you’re drawing to you in an instant.
If you’re feeling anxious, overwhelmed, disappointed, discouraged, irritated, mad, or sad, you may not be able to suddenly switch to calm or peace or forgiveness. But you can always choose gratitude. And that shifts everything. You can recover in an instant by being grateful for what you have right now. It could be the smallest or greatest of things like the sun on your face or being alive. No matter what you are able to find gratitude in, you will feel the shift.
I am not saying that it will always be easy to find gratitude in every situation, but almost always there is a silver lining in even the darkest circumstances.
And the more gratitude that you find, the more fulfilled your life will be. The more you practice gratitude, the happier you will be. You will appreciate things that you didn’t before and find that your life is full of wonders. You will start to feel the feeling of “enough” rather than always wanting more. This is not to say that you should limit your goals or dreams – quite the opposite. When you practice gratitude, the more things are attracted to you. Choosing to feel grateful is so easy. And it simply changes everything.
Every morning as you awaken, every night as you surrender to the stillness, and all throughout your days, let gratefulness wash over you and flood your mind, heart, and soul with its warm and soothing essence. And always, express it liberally.
