Giving Thanks ~ The Gifts of Gratitude # 2

Take a few minutes to reflect back on a happy moment in your life that stands out for you, a moment that stays with you, even if it happened ten, twenty, or forty years ago.

Experience it again… see the scene, hear the sounds that were around you, feel the sensations.

What was it about that moment that stays with you?

What was going on for you that allowed you to feel grateful?

That’s the most wonderful thing about gratitude… it makes you feel full, bursting with delight, just to remember the gifts you have received.

Thus are we doubly blessed… when we receive something, for the gift itself, and later, in recall, for the miracle of having been given it.

One of the incredible truths about gratitude is that it is impossible to feel both the positive emotion of thankfulness and… a negative emotion such as anger or fear at the same time.

Gratitude births only positive feelings… love, compassion, joy, and hope.

As we focus on what we are thankful for, fear, anger, bitterness simply melt away, seemingly without effort.

How can this be?

The answer is that gratitude helps us track success and the brain naturally works to track success.

If you have ever watched a baby learn something… you’ll know what I mean.

Learning to walk, for example, she stands and puts out one foot.

Boom!  Down she goes because her balance wasn’t right.

Instead of castigating herself for blowing it… getting angry or blaming the floor… or her shoe, she just registers that it didn’t work and tries again.

As we get older, however… we get schooled in our mistakes, and learn to focus on what’s lacking, missing, inadequate, and painful.

That’s why gratitude is so powerful.

It helps us to return to our natural state of joyfulness where we notice what’s right instead of what’s wrong.

Gratitude reminds us to be like plants, which turn toward, not away, from the light.

I don’t know about you… but in general, there hasn’t been a lot of joy, that opening and swelling of the heart, in my life.

It wasn’t because of my circumstances, because they were not particularly hard, but because of my mental training.

Like so many of us, I was busy climbing the ladder of success… and took no time to enjoy the journey.

I was too busy getting on to the next challenge.

But I got sick and tired of the joyless existence, and so have thought a lot in the past few years about how to bring more joy into my life.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that joy and gratitude are inseparable.

Joy is defined by the dictionary as an “emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires,” while gratitude is that “state of being appreciative of benefits received.”

In other words, whenever we are appreciative; we are filled with a sense of well-being and swept up by the feeling of joy.

Want to feel more joy?

Take a moment right now to think of all that you have accomplished today and celebrate each feat, no matter its size.

You will feel better, even if only a little bit, right?

The more we pay attention to our successes and accomplishments, the more success we can create.

And we’ll view life as a grand adventure that we are willing to show up for rather than a series of tedious tasks to be crossed off or endured. ~MJ Ryan