What a wonderful expression of nature’s creation and continuation of its splendor human life is! Human beings and nature in their full glory are the two most astounding and beautiful sight for our eyes. That thought itself fills me with immense gratitude and humility and reminds me of the force and power that it emanates. Nature in its true grandeur and the cornucopia of life that it is, as well as people who continuously make our lives worthy, and exciting, have always humbled me as a person. This profound cognizance as a reminder of an existence of a powerful force, makes me a better person, each day and every day of my life. The life that I have been able to enjoy, fills me with huge gratitude, which comes from the deepest layers of my heart and mind and cajoles me to appreciate and celebrate life all the more. However it comes with a rude reminder that gratitude is not a commodity that one can buy in the supermarket, but a feeling of love and praise and humility from within for the people and things who matter and who have always mattered. A manufactured feeling of gratitude is no gratitude. It must be felt from within naturally, and then only we would be able to experience its effectiveness as a powerful healer of our emotional wounds.
Life as we know of metaphorically speaking is a potpourri of different elements, fragrances, colors, shapes, textures and origins. However in reality life is an experience which takes us through the tumultuousness of its varied emotions such as love, pain, despair, joy, touch, success, care, fear, consciousness and so on. We are the recipients of those beautiful as well as painful emotions and experiences every single day of our lives. The world is full of colorful and conflicting emotions of all kinds and together it triggers harmony, chaos and cooperation. This world has no dearth of love, happiness, trust, respect and successes. At the same time we also encounter from time to time too many failures, frustrations, fears, negativity, hatred, rivalry and pessimism around us. These factors play quite a significant role in shaping and carving our overall framework of who we are, what we stand for, and what kind of life we would be forging for ourselves. On the matters related to life, the explanation can be as simple and as complex, depending on who we are talking to and what experiences they would have had. However, life as we see is a continuous and ever flowing stream of water fresh and beautiful, if we want to preserve it that way, occasionally removing the contaminants from our thought process and celebrating the life for what it is, and not for what we want it to be.
Consequently, people can be put into two categories. Generally speaking there are celebrators and non-celebrators of life and its philosophies. The celebrators, have this unflinching lust and love for life. They believe in the promise and grandeur of life. They love life and fill themselves with all the positivities and romance and are always soaked up with zeal, vigor and excitement of life and its potential. Additionally, their undefeated quest for exploring the hidden offerings from the unknown and untouched corners of life is extraordinarily fascinating and inspiring. On the other hand the non-celebrators, although believe in the life itself but with a great deal of suspicion. They don’t see life with great enthusiasm and zeal, therefore have a different view point about life, almost bordering on the negativity. However, the reason for them being suspicious about life, and its promises, could be due to countless amount of failures, frustrations and sufferings that they would have encountered in their lives. It is also true that despite the love and beauty that we talk about, life’s challenges can be daunting and could lead to hopelessness for many of us. It is also true that so many of us who have gone through numerous pains and struggles of life find it very difficult to see life enthusiastically at times. Sometimes, the realities of life outweighs the potential dreams and aspirations, thus creating situations that are less desirable than we would have initially thought.
Many a times we are very critical of life, and end up being frustrated about few undesirable and forgettable events and define our lives based on those events. In the process we not only give too much credit to an undesirable event or events but also discredit the beautiful and memorable people and events of our lives. This causes great deal of frustration, dejection and misery further pushing us on the downward spiral of negativity, sourness and disregard for life. However, when we start looking at life with its full potential and glory, the entire calculus changes in the positive direction. Every positive thought full of gratitude for our own existence, and the people who we love, catapults us to the upward spiral of joy, success and well-being. Considering, how taken for granted we take our ability to walk, see and sense? If we think about the people who don’t have these capabilities due to various handicaps, we would find ample reasons for us to be grateful for. The things that we take for granted, can be an impossible dream for many of our fellow human beings.
We must understand one thing, if we don’t appreciate existing things and achievements of life such as enjoying tea in peace and serenity of nature, getting a small raise in your salary, converting your two wheel ride to a four wheel ride, sharing meals with family and friends, a good night sleep, good health of your parents, and presence of someone in your life who cares for you and thinks about you. It would be quite difficult to achieve a happy and healthy mental state. Undoubtedly, these are no small achievements by any means, but huge ones and calls for our attention and gratitude. However, it should also be pointed out that there are many people, who do not have the above accomplishments, and sound support system in the absence of which life can be rather frustrating. In that case they must celebrate their small victories and people around them before any kind of negativity creeps in. Enjoying a good meal with friends, sunshine, light traffic, favorite dress, flowers, pets, family events, and so on, are some of the examples of day to day victories that one can celebrate and also feel blessed. All these events, (I call them events as nowadays they are few and far) are too significant in the lives of people and should not be undermined and taken for granted. However, we keep looking for things that we want to have and show little or no regard for some of the things that we actually have. The bottom line is we go against our basic human premise. We love and long for appreciation from everybody. We enjoy the praises and appreciations that is directed toward us, and form a positive view point. We don’t particularly enjoy the company of people who don’t appreciate us much. But when it comes to appreciating life as it is, we do exactly opposite of what we believe in. We do not appreciate the life, people, and achievements that we have been blessed with, instead we keep raising our expectations bar higher and higher without showing much gratitude. Furthermore, we always expect too much from life and demand to be treated right. How is it possible for life to treat us right? If we keep on criticizing what we have, how is life going to appreciate us and present us with what we don’t?
In order to get more out of life, we have to be more thankful for what we already have!
The moment we understand the significance of our blessings in terms of people, places , things and our abilities to stand, walk, talk, play, love and sense, assuredly enough our perception toward life would change dramatically in a most positive and humble way. It would be a salvation for our soul, our innermost core and a reason sound enough to be grateful for. This gift alone is worth all the other worldly possessions combined. The freedom to be in charge of your own body and soul is the greatest gift we ought to be grateful for. Ironically, we keep highlighting the inadequacies more than we appreciate the efficiencies and accomplishments that we have.
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Gratitude is a very powerful human emotion which according to some researchers could be quite extraordinary in changing our understanding of life and its experiences. According to some studies, a person with humility and gratitude is a happy person and their way of looking at life is positive, cheerful, vibrant and eventful. They always look at life as an extraordinary blessing and a gift which they nurture throughout, and plan their lives based on those positives. As per many studies, gratitude is an extraordinarily powerful emotional tool which is used by many people to achieve success, improve relationships, boost concentration, achieve fitness, and stimulate their health and wellness.
Life is a blessing on its own. The fact that we could see the splendor of this universe and marvel of life and nature is no small feat, and should never be undermined. The idea should be to maximize our benefits from available resources with our pragmatism and intelligence. Why fret for the things that we don’t have? It would be much wiser to be thankful for the people who are there for us and things that make our lives better and comfortable than fretting about things that we do not have. And if we really want to show our gratitude for the things that we have, we must do it now, everyday, and continue it forever. There would not be any special occasion for us to start our gratitude tour. No there isn’t. Every day calls for gratitude, for we have too many experiences and people who need to be thanked and celebrated, because of their mere presence. From my own experience I can tell the day I quit being thankless, my life changed overnight. People with positive and calm attitude feel good about most of the eventualities that life challenges them with. Remarkably their attitude plays quite a constructive role in their life, relationships, profession and citizenship. Their gratitude is rewarded with more opportunities of gratitude and thus the cycle continues.
“If we are less thankful for our possessions and people, the life gives us lesser opportunities to be thankful for. On the other hand when we show more gratefulness for the same things, life creates more opportunities for us to show our gratitude!”
There are way too many things in our lives to be grateful for. However, many a times we don’t appreciate those blessings and the magnanimity of people around us, thus ending up wasting our precious time quibbling about the inadequacies of life. According to some studies, thinking positive about our environment and showing our gratefulness for the things that in many way make our lives better extends and expands our happiness further, thus creating more positive circumstances! Truly, gratitude is a harbinger of renewed, resolved and resuscitated life. When the entire world is crying under the burden of pain, anger, disbelief, rivalry, debauchery and immorality, why not be grateful for the wonderful people around us, who are, our most trusted, in thick and thin, day and night, wealth and bankruptcy and in sickness and health.
Let me tell you a story. Few years ago, I was visiting a small city with my family. While I was strolling on the sidewalk enveloping the lake I saw a blind man with his guide dog and cane also taking a stroll. He was enjoying the stroll as much as everyone else. The most striking part was his absolute harmony with his surroundings, his dog and his handicap. Not even for a moment, he appeared anguished or ungrateful with his demeanor. Despite his huge handicap he was trying to make maximum out of the limited capabilities he had in terms of his vision. At the same time he was truly enjoying the moment in perfect harmony with his companion, his dog. There was no sign of helplessness on his face but a sense of pride and humility. I asked him, what makes him so content? His answer was, “the fact that despite my handicap, I could still enjoy the stroll with my dog was the reason for me to go on and feel grateful. That calls for gratitude, and that only matters. The moment of enjoyment and freedom is what I am grateful for. Living by the moment and trying to maximize every single moment of it was and has been my life’s goal.” It has stuck with me all this while and everyday it reminds me to better myself as a person and be grateful for all the wonderful people, blessings, opportunities, capabilities and possessions that I have.
With reference to the studies conducted by world renowned psychologists Robert Emmons & Michael McCullough, people who showed gratitude in their daily lives were healthier, enthusiastic and more positive compared to those who had less people or things to be grateful for. Their studies pointed out that those who kept a gratitude journal on a weekly basis had renewed energy, exercised more, and showed fewer physical symptoms. They also experienced more positive outlook toward their life in general and were more optimistic about the upcoming week. On the other hand, people who had mostly hassles to report or had neutral events during the week, were less optimistic about their life and future.
Sometimes because of the difficulties of day to day life we get demoralized and develop a negative view point and start leading our lives based on those views. However, if we actually sit and think about the good things of our life, there would be numerous occasions to recount and feel grateful for. If due to any reason we are not able to count our blessings, the best and most pragmatic method would be to write it down on a daily basis. The idea is to list those blessings and accomplishments of life that we really are grateful for. It could be anything, from your love, education, parents, siblings, nature, pet, children, occupation, fame, country, friends, cat, laptop, smartphone, and so on. If we list those events and people, we are grateful about our heart would also feel the gratitude and our mental framework also would shift toward much agreeable and palatable surface. If the same routine is repeated everyday, we would have listed quite a few things and that would certainly make a lot of difference in our thoughts and outlook toward life.
Any transformational thought is a change in itself. Changing our thoughts from negativity to positivity and further expressing it through gratitude requires some kind of transformation in the way we look at things. That can take place only if we change our feelings about the people and things that are part of our life. If we are constantly looking out for something that we don’t have, how is it possible to find value in the people and things that we have? This question can be answered only by us. The day we find the answer to that question that would be the day for us to be grateful for all the worldly pleasures, possessions and people and their worthy significance in our lives. That day would start only with the first feeling of gratitude.
In the words of Buddha:
“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.”
Conclusively, gratitude is a powerful force beyond our comprehension. It has the power to transform people’s lives in most positive way. It is a force, to be reckoned with and should be expressed by everybody and anybody. All the ancient philosophies believed and reiterated the power that lies in gratitude, but only recently the scientific studies have also cautiously confirmed the positive power of gratitude. When the mind is mostly diverted to observe what good life has to offer, the mind gets conditioned to see good and feel good, expect good from all and deliver good to all! That is the power of gratitude. When there is so much to explore and discover in life by feeling blessed and accomplished why waste time on trifles. How ethereal life would become, when our energies and knowledge are focused on all those wonderful, loving and caring people that we have in our lives to love, live with and celebrate! That power can be harnessed only by feeling grateful with the honesty and passion from the bottom of our hearts for those who matter. Furthermore, we can find value in the people and things only when we see them closely, feel their pains and pleasures, joys and sorrows, success and failures. Those people in our lives are the true treasure, and perfect support system, for us to share good times and bad times with. Subsequently, showing our gratitude to those people who matter would be a perfect expression of love, care, humility, and strength primarily for our own emotional and physical well-being and also for the continuation and renewal of good faith and judgment. That would be our true gratitude, not the first, not the second and certainly not the last! Therefore, we must develop and nurture the infallible power of gratitude for more prosperity, wellness, love and success.
