Start with gratitude

Gratitude means being thankful, counting your blessings, acknowledging the pleasures of life, and being grateful for everything you receive. It also means living your life like it’s a miracle, with the recognition that you are blessed with the abundance in your life. Gratitude shifts your focus from what you don’t have to what you have. What are you grateful for today? The gift called life; the job you have; the business, friends, and family; a healthy body and mind; social connection; the ability to pay your mortgage? What are you really grateful for? Training yourself to be grateful is a good thing. Being grateful helps you appreciate life in a more meaningful way. Many times we are focused on what we don’t have, and we forget that we have great assets to work with. 

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life – Melody Beattie

Being grateful has tangible benefits. Some of the benefits of gratitude are: It is a stress buster; it helps boost your immune system; it creates stronger social relationships; it encourages you to be optimistic in the midst of pressures at work and at home; it can lower blood pressure; it gives you energy for daily exercise; it helps you sleep better; it equips you to rise above issues and challenges; it helps you focus on what you have working for you rather than the liabilities; it builds higher levels of positive emotions; it makes you more alert, alive, and awake; it generates happiness; it helps you to become more helpful, generous, compassionate, and forgiving; it inspires you to appreciate your source of supply; and it lightens the excess baggage you could be carrying.

William Faulkner said, “Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity; it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.” When you are thankful for what you have, more of what you want will come to you. Oprah Winfrey captured this well by saying, “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”

When I wake up each morning the first thing I say is, “God, thank you for the gift of life, your provision, protection and promotion.” Maya Angelou said, “Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.” So much has been written on the subject of gratitude mainly because being grateful is a powerful concept and also a spiritual principle. 

“If the only prayer you say in your life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”– Meister Eckhart.

Those who are grateful for what they already have and what is yet to be received are saying, “I am thankful for all the blessings in my life.” Ralph Waldo Emerson on the subject of gratitude said, “Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” Gratitude is the appreciation of what is valuable and meaningful to you and represents a thankfulness and/or appreciation.

​Rabbi Harold Kushner said, “If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.” Be a person of gratitude and you will begin to appreciate all the great things going for you.