Do you know that happiness… the sheer joy in being
alive… is within your reach?
All you need is an attitude of gratitude.
Gratitude creates happiness because it makes us feel
full… complete… it’s the recognition that we have all we need… at least in this
moment.
Recent scientific research has begun to indicate
that positive emotions such as gratitude and love… strengthen and enhance the
immune system… enabling the body to resist disease and recover more quickly
from illness… through the release of endorphins in the bloodstream.
Endorphins are the body’s natural pain killers.
Among other effects… they stimulate dilation of the
blood vessels… which leads to a relaxed heart.
What this means is that the more we experience a
sense of gratitude… we literally bathe ourselves in good hormones and feel
happier and more content with our lives.
Like most great spiritual truths, gratitude is
stunningly simple.
This is not to say it’s necessarily easy to
practice.
All kinds of distractions… obfuscation… and negative
attitudes from our upbringing may get in the way.
But all you really have to do to receive gratitude’s
gifts is to make a commitment to be thankful on a daily basis… and the world
will be suddenly transformed into a beautiful wonderland in which you are
invited to play.
Consciously cultivating thankfulness is a journey of
the soul… one that begins when we look around us and see the positive effects
that gratitude creates.
We do this by noticing those around us to whom
gratefulness comes easily and realizing how much we enjoy being around these
people.
We also tap into these gifts as we think about times
in the past when we felt particularly grateful.
Remember the peacefulness and the delight that
accompanied those times?
As we come to understand the gifts of gratitude… we
realize that being grateful is not something remote or foreign… and part of the
natural joyful expression of our full humanness. ~MJ Ryan
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