Your Relationship To Gratitude

In Gifts Of Gratitude, I discuss how gratitude has positively influenced and confused me, and why. Many of you reading this may be convinced of it and others may be looking at it with one eyebrow raised.

What finally strengthened my relationship to gratitude is the actual practice of it. In the past couple of months, I have experimented with the site Thankfulfor. Each day, I now take the time to actively reflect on what I’m grateful for. Both thinking about my blessings and typing them online have heightened the joy I feel in these moments.

Since beginning my gratitude practice, I’ve been...

• Shifting my attitude to see the glass half full rather than half empty
• Developing more trust in life and in my process
• Feeling more present in the moment
• Experiencing more happiness

Courtesy of rick on Flickr

Focusing on the great things that happen to me has transformed my everyday occurrences into magical moments that carry me throughout the day. Why and how? The more weight I put on the everyday occurrences, the more they linger emotionally. The well-being I feel when actively thinking about what I feel grateful for sticks around because I take the time to highlight it, to blow it up.

In the book Get A Life That Doesn’t Suck, Michelle DeAngelis states, “Joy is something like the radio signals that we’re not aware of, even though they’re all around us. Unless we have the receiver switched on, we don’t notice them at all. Well, we have a joy receiver inside us. It’s in there, like some joy chip we’re all born with, it just has to be dusted off and switched on.”

To me, gratitude is something that helps turn the “joy switch” on.

If you’re also curious about practicing gratitude, remember that it doesn’t have to be this lofty or painstaking goal. Regardless of your relationship to gratitude and your belief in it, you can slowly move toward developing your own attitude about gratitude.

Novice

Maybe you just came across the idea of gratitude. It all feels a bit new to you, but you’ve been hearing this word around town quite a bit lately. I hope this will serve as more research or evidence to help you determine whether it’s the right path for you.

Intermediate

You’re more familiar with gratitude and you’ve even tried jotting a few things you’re feeling thankful for. You know about its benefits, and maybe experienced a few, but haven’t developed a consistent practice just yet.

Advanced

You’re an expert in gratitude and can help teach the rest of us a few things. You wholeheartedly embrace the power of it and have well-developed rituals that often leave you feeling in awe of what life has to offer.

We’re all on this planet to live the life that is right for each of us. Think about your relationship to gratitude and take the first step that’s right for you. It’s supposed to add to your life, not make it harder. It’s supposed to bring you joy, not deplete you. So do what you can, what you want to do, what you’re willing to do for you.

Check out Practicing Gratitude to get your feet wet...