I have often wondered if I am thankful enough, not just to God for the amazing life I have but also to the people who are in my life who help to make it so wonderful. My professor read a few word from a self-help book called 'HELP' that tells of the powerful effects of a 'Gratitude Lifestyle' on people's lives and encouraged us to keep a gratitude journal to remember all the people that we are thankful for. I thought of how easily we all tend to get depressed when a problem pops up, and how great it would be to have a little reminder of when things were great, when a huge problem got solved and people were kind and loyal and generous and truthful to us. I also thought of all the times that we get too busy to be thankful to people because we're worrying about the next problem.
Gratitude helps us simply by taking our focus away from the things we do not have or the things that are not so great and placing them on what is important: the people and the good things that we have right now. It is a simple principle of life that those who have a positive attitude and are quick to acknowledge the gifts of others make other people happy and in turn create more gifts for themselves. As the Yoruba proverb that says, "He who gives thanks for today's favor will surely receive another tomorrow...."
So what's your Grati-o-meter looking like? Have you been down in the dumps because the world is so terrible? Or have you stopped to breathe and say a quick Thank You to someone who made life just a little easier for you? Think about it, maybe even start a Gratitude Journal about ONE good thing that someone does for you every day. I promise you, you will realize that the world is not all bad and that there are some pretty awesome people out there. For me, that's more than enough to be grateful for.
PS I am Thankful that you took the time to read this..... Peace.
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