What is Gratitude?
It is feeling great about our good fortune to experience something special. Some people feel it all the time. Some people only feel it on an occasion when something special has been achieved or happened.
We tend not to give gratitude a lot of attention on a daily basis. That is a shame. It is hard to name feelings that give us more satisfaction than gratitude. We want to be happy. We go through some extensive efforts to get what we think will make us happy. It may take time, an achievement, reaching a certain status, waiting for something to happen, giving all our effort to reach a goal. In the meantime, are we not feeling happy?
Gratitude is taking inventory. We can take it several times a day. Off the top of our head, we can list a few things for which we are grateful. We don’t have to reach an objective to feel grateful, we can feel grateful in the process that we have the opportunity to reach the objective. While driving my car, I can quickly take an inventory of the things for which I am grateful. Any time of day, I can take this inventory.
Why is it important? When we are not happy our brain has produced cortisol to make us seek happiness. We can get happiness through positive or negative behaviors. Learning, creativity, caring, exercising, contributing, and self-care are positive behaviors.
On the other hand, we can get happiness through positive thoughts or feelings. Gratitude, joy, love, abundance and peace all create feelings of happiness. They raise our vibration so that we enjoy life and attract positive people, experiences, and opportunities.
We can raise our vibration with a gratitude practice. We can become happier, more productive, more intuitive, more creative, and more attractive when operating at higher levels of consciousness which could be called vibration or gratitude. For people seeking success in a career, a higher vibration or level of consciousness is easily observed by those in our circles and our superiors. We become a positive force that others want to include in their daily lives.
Using Gratitude as a Tool
Gratitude is free for our use. You just list for what you have gratitude. When you start saying it several times in a day it becomes a habit you repeat. Then you might find yourself saying “I like that” or “This makes me happy” or “This is great”. In other words, being happy about things becomes a way of thinking.
Then when you are having a bad moment, you can ask yourself, “What am I grateful for”? Bring those ideas up and it minimizes what you were just troubled about. It’s not Polyanna, it’s a tool you can use to get you out of bad humors.
Pretty soon more things will make you happy. You will still have problems during your day, but you will start having more happy thoughts and seeing around you in the material objects and in your thoughts the things for which you have gratitude. You will become aware of negative thinking quicker and look to escape using your tools.
Challenge and Risk Are Ways to Achieve Gratitude
Gratitude loves to follow a process. You can stop at any time in the day to count the reasons you feel gratitude. You can also set the process of growth that feels like your purpose and the reason you are here. That is a continuous path of gratitude waiting for you.
The brain grows with challenge. We love problems to solve. We love being creative. We love contributing to the welfare or betterment of others. When we have the independence to work on meaningful problems, we find ourselves. It can move from something we do to who we are.
Each morning for over ten years I have been sitting down to write. I frequently am up at 5 a.m. because it seems so quiet and my whole nervous system resonates with the peace and freedom to do something I love without interruption. After that I can’t wait to get out to exercise. My thing is bike riding. I get lost in it while out on the road riding along the San Diego Coast. I always have goals of riding for longer distances. I love being outside a long time. I figure out what gives me the stamina to ride longer. Good nutrition, good sleep, and good pedaling mechanics all help.
Getting better at something often leads to passion. It can become who you are and that is a good goal. You want to have things for which you have passion that define you. We can see how we would have gratitude for the opportunities to engage in things for which we have passion.
How to Develop a Life of Contentment
Being content is like being grateful. We are happy with our stock. We don’t have to be jumping up and down like we just won the lottery. We can have a pleasant smile as though we just had a nice thought. We can take the measure of all things and say life is good. We can include the items in our life that are not settled and might worry us.
We can include the fun events or people we are looking forward to. We can assess our daily routines and whether they serve us. We can be happy for our opportunities to continue enjoying our life. We could say all in all my life is not bad. That could be expressing contentment.
The benefits of a life of contentment could include many practices that reflect we are not emotionally stressed:
- We don’t overeat.
- We don’t have food cravings from emotional triggers
- We don’t find ourselves looking for sugar if we are troubled or bored
- We don’t use drugs to relieve stress
- We exercise regularly which causes relaxation
- We have good friends that stay in touch
- We have family that is concerned about our welfare
- Our work is satisfying
- We have opportunities to improve our future
- We sleep well at night
- We think life is fair
- We smile often or have happy thoughts
- We enjoy music, reading, or other relaxing past times
- We enjoy our meals and eat tasting our food
- We are often mindful
- We have a meditative or yoga practice
- We are happy to help people and often go out of our way
- We have kind words for other people and respond to questions kindly
- We are kind
- We have empathy
Some benefits of a life of contentment and gratitude:
- Good sleep quality
- Feel stable emotionally
- Frequent feelings of happiness and good moods
- Have positive outlook for the future
- Stress, burnout, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are not issues
- Great resilience to obstacles and daily problems
- Good health
- Good financial management
- Spiritual practice, feeling at one with all things
- Making a contribution in our daily lives and with our life
What are some other reflections of contentment and gratitude?
Time to jump in and read the book for developing your gratitude practice.
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