Today,
Amanda Berlin, my cohost on the
All About We Podcast shares this timely blog on gratitude.
Have you ever white-knuckled gratitude?
I have.
Have you ever sat there, sleepless in your bed at night, eyes open staring at a ceiling you can’t quite see, trying to remember the things that are going RIGHT in your life, and coming up empty?
Have you tried to focus on gratitude because you know you should or you read some pithy or soulful quote one of your annoyingly optimistic friends posted on Facebook?
Have you had to pull those things you’re grateful for out of you-don’t-want-to-say-where because “Gosh, I’m so spoiled to be feeling this BAD about my life since so many people have it so much worse?”
I get that.
What if we were able to come at gratitude from a place of greater understanding and appreciation (get it?) for gratitude’s benefits in our lives and in the lives of others?
Today, on this weekend of Thanks, I have for you three reasons why gratitude is important…and none of them have to do with “shoulding” all over the process. (i.e. I know I SHOULD be grateful.)
#1:Gratitude can help you make someone else feel good
I recently talked with my community about replacing the word “sorry,” (which women say all too often in inappropriate context that have nothing to do with apologies) with “thank you.” When you say “thank you,” you are giving the other person the opportunity to, yes, feel appreciated. You are also telling them that you see and honor who they are, what they are doing, and how they are showing up in your life. Thank you is a gift for the person to whom you’re saying it.
#2: What you appreciate appreciates
When you take a minute to feel gratitude for even the most simple thing in your life, like, say, the scent of fresh brewed coffee wafting from the kitchen every morning, you’re waking up to the presence of that scent and the feeling of gratitude. When you wake up, you’re more aware, and when you’re more aware, you start seeing more and more of these little moments for which you can be grateful.
Soon, it’s a gratitude avalanche and you’re overwhelmed (in a good way!) by these little moments of beauty and they seem to happen all the time. When you start to appreciate the little things, the little things take on bigger meaning and they are amplified in your life.
#3: Gratitude changes the way you feel in your life
An attitude of gratitude comes with its own energy profile. Someone who embodies this attitude is happy, soulful, magnetic. They are just more fun to be around. And when you ARE the person who adopts that attitude of gratitude and you get to live in that energy of happiness you feel better in your life. You can rest comfortably and confidently in the fact that you’re showing up as a positive source of energy, which is a blessing to those around.
You might even hear them say, “Thank you!” for that.
