Gratitude - Stop Taking Everything For Granted

Everybody knows how to enjoy a vacation. Particularly when we travel abroad, we open our eyes to see new sites and our taste buds are ready to savor new kinds of food. It is easy to appreciate everything when we take a break from our work and our familiar surroundings. But we all return home after vacations and that means returning to routine and our daily chores. In our day to day existence, we tend to take for granted what we already possess and we tend to appreciate only what is new (like birthday presents, surprises). It is not surprising that there are so few joyful moments in our lives. However, there is a way to change and to unlock our potential to find joy in each moment. – the way of gratitude.
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
~ Melody Beattie

Definition Gratitude means a state of being grateful or thankful where we are appreciative of benefit received.

Expressing Gratitude
We express our gratitude by thanking others in words and even more so by our acts. When we thank someone we empower them and ourselves. We recognize their value to us and create joy. How we feel about our past (contentment or bitterness) depends on our memories. The more we can find in life to feel grateful about the more we increase our life satisfaction. Gratitude is a catalyst which puts positive energy into our lives and increases our good memories about the past ; their intensity and frequency. When we start to feel grateful, we begin to notice how much joy we block by taking everything for granted. When we are too self-centered or feel victims, we can’t show or feel appreciation and cut ourselves off from other people.

Research by two psychologists Dr Emmons and McCullogh, shows that people who regularly kept a gratitude diary were more alert, energetic, optimistic, empathetic, and healthy and made greater progress in reaching their personal goals than people who kept an ordinary life event diary.

Here are some examples of things we can feel grateful for :

* Our parents who gave us the gift of life
* Our families and friends
* Our teachers and everybody who taught us the lessons of life
* Our society, country and culture
* Nature and the beauty of our environment
* Each day of life we can enjoy in good health
* Our challenges or difficulties : overcoming them will enable us to grow as human beings

John F. Kennedy said
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

Be Thankful (source unknown)

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don't know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

By: Dennis Merimsky

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Dennis Merimsky M.A. is the Managing Director of "Lotus Guidance for Change", writes articles and develop courses in self awareness, the process of change, values and Oriental philosophy. He is keenly interested in and writes about the connections between science and the human mind and plans and writes the material for the Lotus workshops. In addition he directs workshops on dialogue skills and the Earth Charter. lotus4u