The Power of Gratitude.
Self Realization Center. Encinitas, CA - Age 4.
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We have goals. We have dreams. We have plans. We have wants…. and there is nothing the matter with having them.
What causes such pain and unhappiness, however, is being so focused on the tomorrows, the goals, the dreams, the plans, the wants… and missing out on what is, What we have, right now. It’s a balance.
When we start with the little things like fresh air, food in the fridge, clean water… and we stop to think how we have all of that. The farmers that grow the food, the drivers that deliver the food, the store clerks that stock the shelves the cashiers that ring it up and the baggers that bag it… There is so much effort and work that goes into having food in house. That, we can be grateful for.
When we decide to take nothing for granted. People. Places. Nature. What we DO have. What we CAN do. There is SO much every day to be grateful for.
But it is a practice. We get in habits of: not noticing, complaining, worrying, gossiping, wanting, etc. and those habits distract us from what is here and now. Those habits lower our level of joy drastically. And they become such engrained habits. It is a practice to look for things to be grateful for. And that habit is the doorway to happiness. The more we practice the deeper to we go into a joy-filled life.
How to drop the old habits and create new ones?
Keeping a gratitude journal for a whole year is a great way of practicing. Re-training the brain to see things to be grateful for and cultivating gratitude deep within us. Truly feeling it.
Kids are great at this, when gently pointing them to what there is to be grateful for in their lives, they see it quickly. They speak of it. They take it in. They see gratitude and the magic that surrounds life. And we dont need to be kids to build the gratitude muscle. We can start at any age.
And it is never too late.
At the office, we can acknowledge those whose behavior we are grateful for and that is also another way of switching the culture at work. We can do this at home too, shifting the culture in our own homes.
Use gratitude to find your true happiness. 🙏🏼