November 24, 2011

Power of Attitude of Gratitude


Gratitude is the feeling of being thankful and it comes from the Latin words:
                     gratia , meaning favour, charm and thanks and,
                     gratus, meaning pleasing and grateful
Gratitude is an inspirational force that causes us to draw our attention to the good, the beautiful, and open up a host of possibilities. It is exactly what we need when we are in pain and it can help us to cope with our loss.

It has been irrefutably proven that every emotion and every thought has a measurable frequency. Emotions and thoughts of love and gratitude resonate at a frequency that brings about balance of all the cellular functions of the body. Many studies show that practicing gratitude may be the fastest single pathway to the emotional wellbeing, long life, and prosperity.

Your brain can only hold one thought at a time! Choose that thought! Choose to live in “An Attitude of Gratitude”. If you are grateful for something, it is impossible to hold on to thoughts of anger, grief, and hate.

Most of us are thankful for the good health, families we love, our jobs and for our opportunity to live our lives the way we want to. Yes, it very easy to be grateful for pleasant and peaceful experiences.
The difficulty comes in being grateful for the things that upset, offend, hurt and injure us. Grief can be the result of many events such as the loss of a family member, friend or pet, serious illness, separation or divorce, or a move to an unfamiliar town.

 How can I be thankful for anything when I am grieving and in pain? I can’t begin to think about appreciation or being grateful”.

Nothing and no one can truly be destroyed.
When you heat an ice cube, it turns to water. If you continue heating that water, it turns to steam. The essence of the ice cube remains; just the form is different.  
Maybe not everything in our lives is the way we want it to be, but some things are wonderful, and the things that aren’t so wonderful will get better in time. Experience of emotional pain is opportunities to learn love. Even the deepest, darkest sorrows have an equal amount of joy – the sooner we find it, the sooner we experience the blessings. Developing a mental “Attitude of Gratitude” will give you inner strength that will bring you inner peace in such difficult time of your life.
When times get tough, everyone has to make a fundamental decision: to complain or to be grateful. Focus on everything that you are grateful for, communicate this, and open yourself each day to the best possible consequences.

Developing Attitude of Gratitude:

 ● List three achievements you are proud of accomplishing. For each of the achievements you listed write five ways you received help from others. 
● List the three most recent act of service you have performed. Then write five ways these acts of love helped you fulfil your own inspired dreams. 
● When grieving, if anger hangs around too long in your thoughts, switch your attention to a person, place, or thing you are grateful for.  Use your self-talk to change the scene: “I have this anger and rightly so, but I am choosing to be thankful for all of the help I am receiving from my friends/my family. I am truly grateful.”

"Be grateful for the learning experience of loss.
You cannot change what has happened – it has happened.
You can change the way you think about it!!
Feel gratitude for the life-enhancing opportunity to learn and grow from this."
                                                                        Ken B Marslew, CEO of EIE


Resources:
Time to Take a Chance/ by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
Grief and the Attitude of Gratitude by Joseph Burgo, PH.D.
Keep your attitude of gratitude – even during grief by Ann Ulrich Miller
How Gratitude Will Reduce the Pain of Grief by Lou LaGrand

1 comment:

  1. i believe most people realize they have something to be grateful for even when they are in pain. It may be the clothes you wear, the eyes you can see with, etc. we just should find it in our heart to be grateful.
    wonderful article

    ReplyDelete