I stumbled upon this definition of “gratitude” on Wikipedia the other day:
“Gratitude, thankfulness, or gratefulness, from the Latin word gratus meaning “pleasing” or “thankful”, is regarded as a feeling of appreciation by a recipient of another’s kindness, gifts, help, favours, or other forms of generosity to the giver of such gifts.”
“Appreciation” is the first key word here. Have you been consciously appreciating something today? Anything? And thinking how great it is, to have things in your life that you really appreciate?
And “gifts”. What gifts are you enjoying today? Maybe the fact that you’re alive? And healthy? Is it the sunlight, or the fresh air and fresh water you have access to? Is it your freedom? People or animals in your life? Your sense of humour? Your home? The delicious food you’re having today?
And who’s the “giver of such gifts” to you? Do you ever ask yourself where all those good things come from? You might think that you got a gift from a friend. Sure, but who got that friend into your life? And why do they want to give you a present? Or you might think that your profession gives you the money to buy what you need. Sure, but who got that profession into your life? And who’s making it work?
Yes, it’s you. You have directly or indirectly created all of that. You’re creating all the time, you can’t help it. As human beings, with the frequencies that our awareness, our thoughts, and our feelings broadcast into the universe all the time, we just never stop creating. For good or for bad…
The great thing about appreciating and being grateful, is that we then tell the universe, “You see? That’s how I’m feeling”. And the universe says, “Ok, more of this coming your way, give me a minute”.
And when we’re feeling down because we don’t have what we want, when we’re looking at the lack of what we want, we’re again telling the universe, “You see? That’s how I’m feeling”. And the universe again says, “Ok, more of this coming your way, give me a minute”.
The universe doesn’t make any distinctions between good or bad. It only looks at how we’re feeling, in order to give us more of the same feeling. We love and appreciate, it gives us more things to love and appreciate. We complain and criticise, it gives us more things to complain about and criticise. In other words, our thoughts, and the feelings produced by them, are constantly creating the reality we perceive.
Our thoughts and feelings are made of pure energy, as is everything else in the universe. And the energy of our thoughts will resonate with more things that have similar energy. So these things will then come into our experience. If we have happy thoughts, we’ll start noticing more happy things, if we have sad thoughts, we’ll start seeing more sad things. This has everything to do with the universal Law of Attraction, or Law of Resonance.
Now the big thing about gratitude is, that it has the same energy as receiving. We’re grateful when we receive something. So being grateful for what we already have, no matter how small, will make more things appear into our lives, that we will be grateful for. And they can be big!
To sum it all up in 3 words, gratitude brings abundance.
There’s much talk about gratitude lately. Gratitude journals have become very popular, there are social media groups dedicated to it, meditations, articles, posters, t-shirts… This is wonderful, and now you know exactly why it’s so powerful
It’s as simple as that. Not easy! But simple.
Thank you Eva Marie for your great comment 💗 That’s right! Feeling sorry for ourselves is exactly one of those moments when we’re creating more sorrow for ourselves. And gratitude is such a powerful antidote!
Its true at times we dont think about all the things to be grateful for. I know when i start feeling sorry for myself I only have to get grateful to bring me up out of that slump. Theres so much to be grateful for. It makes sense to live in a grateful state of being will indeed enhance my life. Great article.