As long as we are alive (and possibly when we are not), we are ALWAYS receiving something (food, water, energy, feelings, safety, thoughts, love, life, etc…), thus there is ALWAYS something to be grateful for… Thank Goodness! :p Even when we may seem to have absolutely nothing, we still have air to breathe, a body that breathes it, and a heart that keeps us alive, so we can always “give” thanks in return for at least these blessings. And the joy which comes from this giving of thanks is free, so who cares if money can’t buy happiness, because gratitude can! And if we ‘spend’ just a little time appreciating what we have, we can actually feel a comforting happiness simply through giving thanks, saying prayers, and counting our blessings. (“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around” – Willie Nelson) A simple ‘thank you’ can be so powerful that it can actually create a physical, emotional, and spiritual sensation in both the sender and the receiver simultaneously. Wow. Talk about a win-win situation! (“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.” - John F. Kennedy) But wait, there’s more… Not only can gratitude increase our happiness and send a positive response back to whom we received from, but being thankful also allows for the flow of 'giving and receiving' (karma?) to continue. Have you ever done something nice for someone and then not been noticed for your efforts? Sometimes not even a “thank you”?! When this happens, the giver is less likely to give to the receiver again, knowing that their efforts were not appreciated, valued, or returned. A lack of gratitude such as this can interrupt the flow of blessings into our lives. This is because when we are not grateful, we are only taking (things for granted), without giving back. When the universe graces us with a sunny day, a phone call from a friend, a promotion, free food, or anything else, it is important that we recognize those as gifts and give thanks in return, so as not to interrupt the flow of positivity in the giver’s life and also that of our own. · In the Quran, it says “If you give thanks, I will give you more, and if you are ungrateful then (know that) my punishment is severe." – (Ibrahim 14:7) · In the bible, a similar message: “whoever has [gratitude] will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have [gratitude], even what he has will be taken from him (Matthew 13:12) (Luke 8:18) (Mark 4:25) · Mohammad, the founder of Islam said, "gratitude for the abundance you have received is the best insurance that the abundance will continue." · Even Sir Isaac Newton, in regards to the universal law of motion, said that “to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction” (so, again, a similar message of “if you give, you will receive” which is found in Luke 6:38 can be applied) Having noticed the magnitude of gratitude throughout life, science, and various religions, I recently decided to make a conscious effort to be more grateful. To do this I began by writing a list everyday (well, honestly I usually did it about 5-6 times a week) of 10 things I was grateful for and why I was grateful for them. The “why” part I believed would and did extend the depth of my gratefulness. Because gratitude is a feeling, I believed the more I felt the emotion, the more powerful/effective it would be. At first it was easy. I was thankful for obvious things like my job, my health, family, house, and friends because they all contributed to my happiness, security, my sense of belonging and my overall well-being. Then I started writing about how I was grateful for things like the clock on the wall and how it helped so many people schedule, plan, and track events. And I remember giving thanks for things like the chair in the room which for so many people reliably provided support, comfort, rest, and for those like Jackie Chan – it could even be a great martial arts weapon! :p However, as the days went on, I noticed I was running out of items/ideas to be grateful for, or at least so I thought. But what I really needed was to be more aware of the reality in which I was so blessed to be a part of… *Musical interlude* “Be thankful for what you got” – William De Vaughn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDTXljIqxRE So one day, I remember standing in the bathroom thinking about what to be grateful for. And I noticed my tube of toothpaste. “Oh, well, that’s a good one,” I thought. “I’m grateful for toothpaste because it cleans my teeth and keeps my breath fresh.” Good as that was, I wanted to see how I could take my appreciation for this toothpaste to a deeper level. So I continued staring at the tube of toothpaste… Thinking… Wondering… Who invented toothpaste? Hey, I should be grateful for their discovery! And what exactly is toothpaste made of? I should be grateful for those components, the earth which provides them, and the people who gather/use them. Then I thought, who was the poor creature who may have been injured by performing preliminary trials of toothpaste? I should be grateful for their noble efforts! And what about the minimum wage workers in factories mixing/making toothpaste? I should be thankful for them too! Also, who invented and who creates the convenient, sterile, squeezable storage tube for the toothpaste? Surely I must be grateful for them as well. And what about the delivery drivers, businessman, and salespeople who successfully market the product and ensure it gets from the store to my mouth? Thank you! Further thanks go out to my elders, dentists, and educators who taught me the importance of toothpaste so that I’d be drawn to the item in the first place. Oh! And I should also be thankful to the grocery store clerk who stocked the item on the shelf, and to the custodian who provided a clean floor to walk on through the store. And I must also appreciate the service provided by the cashier who helped me with my purchase. Wow! All those people to thank just for getting my toothpaste. And yet, I didn’t even mention being grateful that I had money to pay for the product or that I had a bicycle to ride to get the item in the first place. I think I could go on, potentially forever. But I don’t wish to bore anyone, it is only toothpaste… However, the point is that through exploring the reality of what gifts/services I had actually received through my toothpaste purchase, I was opened up to new levels of gratitude, creating more good feelings within me. Realizing that I could appreciate such a seemingly simple item with extended joy and gratefulness made me feel more happy about the situation I was in (and for the product I was using). This gratitude mindset I was developing seemed to be making me noticeably happier, even if just for short moments, but still I wanted to challenge myself further… So I set a new goal. I wanted to continue writing gratitude lists until I had written 1,000 different things to be grateful for. This task forced me to look deeper into my own life and find things to appreciate which I would normally often take for granted. I started giving thanks for things such as the hairs in my nose for catching dust and bacteria, and for bacteria for making cheese and yogurt possible! I even gave thanks for grains of sand for providing wonderful beaches for many creatures, for helping with soil drainage in farming, for composing much glass, paint, concrete, brick, mortar, artificial reefs, and of course – sand castles! I also started being thankful for the red lights on the road (this was hard at first) which support safety, general flow, and allow us to briefly pause from the busyness of the road and notice the current surroundings. Filling my mind with things to be grateful for made me feel that I was living a more abundant life which led to more feelings of happiness and gratefulness. By consciously making an effort to be more grateful over an extended period of time, I noticed my regular mentality was shifting… An example of this was one night, when my electricity went out in my apartment. Normally, my first thought would have been to stomp around huffin’ and puffin’, yellin’, “Damnit! Stupid electrical wiring in my apartment! What am I gonna do now? Why is this happening to me? Arghhh…” But due to my recent mental exercises in gratitude, my response was, “well, I’m glad I am safe still, I am thankful I have candles, a flashlight, and warm blankets. And even more thankful that I have electricians nearby so within a day or two, I may have electricity again.” My mindset may have not changed my apartment’s ability to regain power, however it gave me peace of mind and made it easier to endure the situation because instead of worrying about the electricity, my feelings about the situation were changed through finding things to be grateful for. Based on my recent experiences with gratitude, I would highly recommend to anyone trying to make an effort to be more thankful, make it a habit, and maybe even a lifestyle. And if you have read this far, I know that you are alive, so at the very least you can be grateful for your pulse, your breath, your ability to read and comprehend, and probably much, much more. Yet, even with so much to be thankful for, it can still be difficult to create and maintain a grateful lifestyle, especially when things don’t seem to go “our” way, or when society tells us we lack so many things. It still has been hard for me to always have an attitude of gratitude even after writing 1,000 things to be grateful for, so I know it is something that takes practice and continuous effort. But if we wish to be content, happy, or expect anything more in our lives, I think we should be aware of and grateful for what we already have. And luckily for us, there is ALWAYS something to be thankful for. So, again, thank goodness for that! A little more food for thought... “When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them” – Chinese proverb “You have no cause for anything but gratitude and joy” – Buddha "What if we viewed bills in the mail as reminders to be grateful for the great services we receive?" - BD “Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you” – Lao Tzu (Chinese Taoist philosopher… founder of Taoism) "Because you must “give” something (thanks), gratitude is also a form of love" - BD “Better to lose count while naming your blessings than to lose your blessings to counting your troubles” – Maltbie D. Babcock "If you are thinking about what you lack, you are not being grateful" - Rhonda Byrne “Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die, so, let us all be thankful – Gautama Buddha "Every drop is a blessing, let it rain" - BD “To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch heaven” – Johannes Gaertner (theologian, poet) “I started out giving thanks for small things, and the more thankful I became, the more my bounty increased… opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life” – Oprah Winfrey
2 Comments
Tim Downie
6/22/2013 02:24:06 pm
Excellent food for thought! In Judaism, there is a blessing, "Modeh Ani", that one is expected to say every morning. The Hebrew Transliteration is "Modeh ani lifanecha melech chai v'kayam shehechezarta bi nishmahti b'chemlah, rabah emunatecha." Translated, it means "Thank you, living eternal King, for restoring to me my soul within me; Your faithfulness is great." Just being thankful each morning for being alive. When I say it, I feel better.
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Lisa
3/24/2022 08:24:25 am
Beautiful words and inspiration. Thank you!
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