Gratitude
Attitude of Gratitude
As humans it is our basic nature to barter – to give and to take. We tend to barter for love too, seeking to love and to be loved.
Gratitude helps us to gratify our hunger for love. People who have showered us with their love and affection, have satisfied our need to be loved and our need to love others. Their nurturing care helps us become confident and secure individuals. This also enables us to love and have fruitful relationships. Therefore they need to be acknowledged and appreciated for their support and contribution.
When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect towards others.
Dalai Lama
See what is and not what isn’t
It enables us to value what has been bestowed upon us. Being grateful teaches us to look at what is it that is available and with us. We need to overlook what isn’t – the resources that could have been but are not with us. There is no use of focusing our energy on what we lack. It is more sensible to focus on our strengths and resources. This is how we can have a feeling of fullness, wholeness and abundance.
Promotes Mindfulness
Gratitude makes us more receptive and open as a person. It enables us to set aside our unfounded fears and mistrust in people.
Practicing gratefulness encourages us to become more mindful of all the positive things we have in life. It empowers us to refocus our perception to embrace all the love showered on us with a welcoming attitude. It promotes the development of owner mindset.
Turbocharge yourself to help others in solving their problems
Being grateful enables us to become selfless, give unconditionally and engage in purposeful service. It helps us to become compassionate and solve others’ problems, rather than being focused on ourselves. We could give tangible things to others, such as food and medicine to the poor and needy, or donate books to create a rural library. Or, we can give intangible things, such as devoting our time and skills to a cause, with no strings attached.
We suffer more often in imagination than in reality…I advise you not to be unhappy before the crisis comes; since it may be that the dangers ….will never come upon you; they certainly have not yet come.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Discover your purpose in life
Gratitude is a virtue which adds depth and weight to our life. In giving unconditionally, we become humble. Contributing selflessly and in acknowledging the nurturing we have received from others, we gradually learn to give up our ego and selfishness. It is a vitamin to the soul. Being grateful guides us to figure out the meaning and purpose of life. It also encourages us to find our true light.
Get Supercharged
Gratitude nudges us to become unselfish, acquire wholeness and helps us get the big picture. It supercharges people to look beyond their selfish needs and connect to something larger – whether it is other people, nature, a cause, a higher power or the universe at large.
Feeling Gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
William Arthur Ward
Relationship booster
People who practice gratefulness are more empathetic and compassionate. They can forgive easily and are able to move on faster. Expressing gratitude to each other in any relationship causes us to be more forgiving of each others’ folly and be less self-centered. This allows us to connect better, build strong bonds and nurture each other.
Feeling Gracious
Expressing our gratitude towards others leads us to feel good intrinsically. It uplifts our mood and keeps us in a positive and receptive frame of mind.
Motivate oneself
Being grateful is a pathway to self motivation. For some of us acknowledging being alive for another beautiful day, to realize that life is not guaranteed, is a great motivator. It nudges us to live a fuller life and be mindful. It prompts us to saying yes to life and embracing life’s joys, challenges and learnings.
Quickest path to joy – Become happier
Gratefulness can be learnt with practice. It breeds a sense of joy and optimism. This leads to making healthy lifestyle choices. A sense of abundance found through gratefulness enables greater self control, manifesting into greater happiness. It pushes one to become mentally stronger and ready to cope with any kind of depression. It enables you to be a focused and disciplined warrior, always ready to deal with failure.
The heart that gives is a happy one, for we cannot feel thankful and unhappy at the same time.
Douglas Wood
Boost social relationships
Recognizing the support extended to you and being thankful to people needs to be expressed. One way of doing this is by giving people gifts. People usually feel thankful on receiving gifts. Acknowledging, saying ‘Thank You’, asking for help, giving gifts play a key role in initiating and maintaining social relations.
Betters one’s well-being
Practicing gratitude helps in increasing our overall wellness and induce a super physical fitness and mental health. It fosters in us a sense of well-being. Grateful people are more positive in their outlook and self loving, thereby making themselves more open and agreeable. It facilitates our journey of becoming more tolerant, empathetic and forgiving. Grateful people are less prone to depression.
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.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Bettering one’s physical and mental health
It also fosters a resilient mindset capable of dealing with the uncertainty in life. A grateful mind fully understands that uncertainty should ignite creativity and not complacency.
Practicing gratitude also fills us up with energy and prepares us to deal with the adversities of life.
Increases Life expectancy
Researchers have found that writing gratitude journals helps people by reducing inflammation, improving sleep, and in uplifting moods.
Scientific studies have shown that practicing gratitude helps one balance the heart rhythms and the nervous system. It assists in achieving hormonal equilibrium, increases immunity and boosts the production of anti-aging compound DHEA.
What Next
To sum it up, I would say that practicing gratitude empowers us in numerous ways, some of which I have been able to touch upon. The starting point would be to decide to develop a positive mindset and make a conscious choice to say thank you as many times as possible throughout the day. Remember the following mantra and apply it to yourself and the others:
The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.
Charles Schwab
Editor’s Note:
If you enjoyed reading about ‘Gratitude’, you may also like to read about practicing Gratitude, about meditation and its benefits, about how to deal with confusion and dilemma and about how to deal with heartbreak and 13 ways on How to Stop Dwelling in the Past by the same author Crispy Maheshwari.
Also, check out these Thanksgiving greetings, from our YouTube channel, where we express our gratitude to all our stakeholders for our amazing success story so far.
About The Author
Crispy Maheshwari is the Founder of FTEM (From The Experts’ Mouth).
She is very creative and multi-talented. She likes to write, paint and craft. Crispy loves to network, motivate people, teach and spread positivity.
Some of her work has been published in leading national newspaper, International Literary Journals and has also been translated to other languages.
She graduated from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi and has dual professional qualifications – Chartered Accountant and Lawyer (Faculty of Law, University of Delhi).
Gratitude for putting together these tips
The sound and the sparkle of rain is pure enchantment and a reading of this wonderful piece in rains has filled my heart with tender love and optimism. Thank you for this wonderful post!
Thanks so much Ruchi. May your days be filled with the brightest blessings and sparkles of rain.
Gratitude is a very powerful catalyst for our happiness. Very well articulated and a very eye-catching presentation. Thank you so much for this article.
Thank you for the appreciation Shubham!
Beautifully Articulated! Interesting and knowledgeable to read the same. Keep up with the good work!
Gratitude for the appreciation and encouragement Gauri.
Gratitude should be an innate part of everyone’s life. Great write up.
I am grateful that we realize this and are doing our bit to spread the word to make gratitude an essential component of our daily life.
Wonderful article.
Thank you
Riot of colours is lovely.
Thank you for appreciating the aesthetic presentation Kamal.
Superb read.
Thank you.