An Attitude of Gratitude

Gratitude is a strong positive emotion that emanates from a happy, healthy mindset. Gratitude is the ultimate spiritual practice.

A sincere thank you to someone is a form of Gratitude. It is synonymous with respect, appreciation & acknowledgment to someone or something for what the person has done to help you. A sincere, intense silent prayer for someone’s well-being is the best form of gratitude.

The word gratitude comes from the Latin word Gratus, meaning “pleasing, welcome, agreeable”. Word Gratus is also related to terms such as grace, gratuity & gratis, all signifying positive moods, actions, and ideas.

Gratitude is the act of feeling and communicating appreciation for the people, things, circumstances, or material possessions in our life. It makes us cherish our present in ways that make us feel in abundance rather than deprival.

Scientifically, the positive effects of gratitude have been proven for a variety of purposes. In his book The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time,Alex Korb, Ph.D., talks about how gratitude boosts the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin and the hormone oxytocin, all associated with wellbeing and having a positive outlook on life.

Deepak Chopra’s article “Sowing Seeds of Gratitude to Cultivate Wellbeing”, where the co-authors reference clinical studies that prove the positive effects of gratitude on the recovery of patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic heart failure. In these and other studies, science has been providing clinical proof supporting what many religions and spiritual traditions have been predicting for millennia: gratitude does well.

In 2007, Robert Emmons began researching gratitude through a psychological lens. He found that expressing gratitude improves mental, physical, and relational well-being. Being grateful also impacts the overall experience of happiness, and these effects tend to be long-lasting.

Research shows that our thoughts have the power to shape our brains. The more conscious we are about perceiving an experience as being positive the more this perception will generalize to other parts of the brain. 

Rick Hanson explains that negative experiences are like “Velcro” and tend to stick in our minds, whereas positive experiences are like “Teflon” and more readily slip away. We must actively work to integrate positive experiences into the brain for the positive to “stick” and the beneficial effects to endure

Benefits of practicing gratitude:

Gratitude Improves self-esteem

Gratitude Improves physical & mental health

Gratitude improves empathy

Gratitude Improves sleep

Gratitude Improves happiness & Optimism

Gratitude encourages the development of patience, humility & wisdom

Gratitude Improves life satisfaction

Gratitude Improves the quality of relationships

Gratitude can change your life because it is the single most powerful source of inspiration that any person can tap into if they simply just stop and paid attention to the simplistic beauty and miracle of life.

One of the reasons why gratitude can change your life is because it shifts your focus. You see, life is all about focus. Whatever we focus on, we move towards.

From your mental health and wellness to your emotional fortitude, spiritual aptitude, and your physical strength can all be derived from the simple and basic behavior of gratitude. Gratitude can change your life by quite literally improving the quality of it. 

What is the need for Gratitude? 

We take many persons & things for granted. E.g.: Our parents, spouse, children, our own body, natural resources, wealth, relationships, source of income to name a few. Start a practice of thanking every person & the thing in your life. 

Gratitude can change your life because it makes you appreciate what you have rather than what you don’t have.

When you are thankful for what you have, you are always rewarded with more. This is the law of the universe. There is abundance in-universe. 

For what one can be Grateful for?

The moment we wake up, we need to be grateful to be alive & active.   (Worldwide about 150,000 people do not wake up to see the light of the day)

We have a shelter to live in, for which we need to be grateful. (t is estimated that 150 million people are homeless worldwide)

We get healthy food on our plates daily. (Almost 821 million people in the world – one in nine – do not have access to enough food)

• We need to be grateful to our parents because we are here in this world today.
• We need to be grateful to mother nature for the abundance of air, light, vegetation, etc.
• We need to be grateful to all our teachers, masters & mentors, because of whom we are what we are today.
• We need to be grateful to our bodies for working perfectly 24×7 silently.
• We need to be grateful to present & past employers or customers who are paying us.
• We need to be grateful for all the money & wealth we have.
• We need to be grateful to all forms of transport
• We need to be grateful to all persons directly or indirectly working to make our life comfortable.
• As you are reading this post, you have access to electronic gadgets & the internet, for which we need to be grateful.

Gratitude Practice:

·         Take a comfortable seating position & close your eyes.

·         Take two deep breaths to relax your body & mind.

·         Mentally review what you are grateful for?

·         Build upon that thought.

·         Intensify that thought by visualizing & creating a mind map.

·         Practice this at least twice a day

Gratitude Journaling:

 Daily before going to bed, review the day & write 3-5 positive experiences for which you are grateful. Recording these positive experiences boosts levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, and energy. Our days rarely go according to plan or without unexpected challenges. Some of us can naturally appreciate the sweet moments as they happen throughout the day, while many of us need to cultivate this sense of appreciation.

Research shows that recording experiences for which one is grateful for only two consecutive weeks to have lasting positive effects sustained for up to six months.

To conclude, an attitude of Gratitude is simple, takes very little time, costs nothing but gives abundant benefits.