Who does not thank for little will not thank for much. ~Estonian Proverb
It’s interesting how the month of November rolls around and suddenly we remember to be thankful. Then even before the leftovers are put away, and we have digested our pie, we are swept up in the rush of Christmas. For many of us, that thankfulness goes right out the window until next year. Almost as if we store up our thankful thoughts solely for Thanksgiving, and then having checked it off the list, we move on.
Like all things in life, gratitude is not black and white. Most of us have
the skills to say thank you to those who have helped us. We thank the cashier who checks out our groceries, the mechanic who repairs our vehicle, the person who cares for our children. These ‘thank yous’ make the people who have been helpful to us feel acknowledged, which is good, of course, but the shades of gratitude ask us to go beyond the every day ‘thank yous.’ Gratitude must be practiced each day, or we lose it.
It’s in being thankful for the things we often take advantage of that need
our awareness. In our society we seem to feel that we are entitled to everything we wish for. And while it is our birthright to live in abundance, we need to be worthy of that abundance. Part of this comes from hard work and perseverance, however, the other part comes from gratitude. When we make time in our lives to be thankful for the blessings we have, more blessings come to us. We must be grateful of what we have to attract more of what we wish for.
There are times that we find ourselves caught in a negative spiral. Nothing seems to go our way. We just can’t seem to catch a break. We forget about all the good in our lives. We start to feel sorry for ourselves and wonder why our luck is just so bad. These feelings often lead us to quick fixes to make ourselves feel better. We turn to chocolate, alcohol, shopping, whining, whatever, as we try to fill up the hole inside. This never works. These behaviors ultimately make our problems worse.
When we stop and make space in our heads, and our hearts, to be grateful for all the little things we have, we start to appreciate our lives a bit more. The negative spiral is disrupted, making room for positive energy to blossom. Once we go beyond the obvious things to be thankful for we may feel stuck. We need to dig deeper than being thankful for family and friends, because it's the smaller things take us closer to living our gratitude. One teeny tiny moment of gratitude at a time leads us to living a more abundant life. That’s not to say that giving thanks will make all the problems of the world go away, but it’s a start. As Gandhi said, “you must be the change you wish to see in the world". We must commit to being thankful and expressing our gratitude, even on our toughest days. The rest will come. It might not come pouring down in buckets, but by practicing expressing our gratitude, each day our lights will shine a little brighter, causing the lights inside the people around us to shine a little brighter as well. Eventually we’ll come to see that our lives are full of abundance and we have a lot to be grateful for. It isn’t something we do once a year, it must be part of who we are. This is living our gratitude.
It’s interesting how the month of November rolls around and suddenly we remember to be thankful. Then even before the leftovers are put away, and we have digested our pie, we are swept up in the rush of Christmas. For many of us, that thankfulness goes right out the window until next year. Almost as if we store up our thankful thoughts solely for Thanksgiving, and then having checked it off the list, we move on.
Like all things in life, gratitude is not black and white. Most of us have
the skills to say thank you to those who have helped us. We thank the cashier who checks out our groceries, the mechanic who repairs our vehicle, the person who cares for our children. These ‘thank yous’ make the people who have been helpful to us feel acknowledged, which is good, of course, but the shades of gratitude ask us to go beyond the every day ‘thank yous.’ Gratitude must be practiced each day, or we lose it.
It’s in being thankful for the things we often take advantage of that need
our awareness. In our society we seem to feel that we are entitled to everything we wish for. And while it is our birthright to live in abundance, we need to be worthy of that abundance. Part of this comes from hard work and perseverance, however, the other part comes from gratitude. When we make time in our lives to be thankful for the blessings we have, more blessings come to us. We must be grateful of what we have to attract more of what we wish for.
There are times that we find ourselves caught in a negative spiral. Nothing seems to go our way. We just can’t seem to catch a break. We forget about all the good in our lives. We start to feel sorry for ourselves and wonder why our luck is just so bad. These feelings often lead us to quick fixes to make ourselves feel better. We turn to chocolate, alcohol, shopping, whining, whatever, as we try to fill up the hole inside. This never works. These behaviors ultimately make our problems worse.
When we stop and make space in our heads, and our hearts, to be grateful for all the little things we have, we start to appreciate our lives a bit more. The negative spiral is disrupted, making room for positive energy to blossom. Once we go beyond the obvious things to be thankful for we may feel stuck. We need to dig deeper than being thankful for family and friends, because it's the smaller things take us closer to living our gratitude. One teeny tiny moment of gratitude at a time leads us to living a more abundant life. That’s not to say that giving thanks will make all the problems of the world go away, but it’s a start. As Gandhi said, “you must be the change you wish to see in the world". We must commit to being thankful and expressing our gratitude, even on our toughest days. The rest will come. It might not come pouring down in buckets, but by practicing expressing our gratitude, each day our lights will shine a little brighter, causing the lights inside the people around us to shine a little brighter as well. Eventually we’ll come to see that our lives are full of abundance and we have a lot to be grateful for. It isn’t something we do once a year, it must be part of who we are. This is living our gratitude.
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