WHAT IS GRATITUDE?

Happiness is gratitude because it makes you feel good!

Laughter is gratitude because something funny gives you explosive joy.

Giving is gratitude because you think about pleasing and helping another person.

Learning is gratitude because it improves your mind and adds to you.

Thanks and appreciation are gratitude for good things happening.

Love is gratitude.

Pleasure and… disdain

Gratitude is precious to me.  I study it often in relation to art, music, literature, work, careers, relationships, people…everything.

Gratitude is related to any subject you can think of.

There is nothing gratitude is not related to. Here is one of my favorite quotes to show what I mean –

‘The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.’ – Friedrich Nietzsche

The emotion of gratitude and the benefits it yields are always present in my Coaching sessions with clients because of the positive, immediate and tangible effects gratitude can have on you, if you want it to and let it.

That’s your choice at any moment.

It’s either gratitude or resentment  —  anger or happiness  —  pleasure or disdain.

One choice builds you up; it’s constructive, positive. The other weakens you; it’s destructive, negative.

What helps you change

Every day you live life – at home, at work, after work. Even in your dreams as you sleep you’re living life and it’s in a continuous state of change.

Change is not easy and life can be difficult and stressful as you try to balance everything and make it all work well.

You might be looking for work – changing careers – reinventing your life – building personal confidence – shifting how you see and live. You may feel scattered, pressured and pulled all over the place but the active choice to be grateful, with all the details and complexities you live with, will help to create balance and move you forward with greater ease and success .

Gratitude gives you a purpose.

It stabilizes you. It’s a positive guide to begin your change because it relaxes and lifts you out of your negative, despairing thoughts.

You choose to think differently. To try another direction. Anything is better than where you usually are when you’re hopeless and hurting.

It’s small with a big hit

I googled the subject – “Quotes on gratitude” – to learn how people see and talk about it.

I wanted to know if gratitude had a history. How far back it went and how it was defined, described and what value, if any, people found in gratitude.

I like doing this kind of research a lot because I love quotations. They inspire me. I learn new things about myself, other people, history, politics and life every time I look at a quote.

Quotes are a tiny manuscript with big, penetrating ideas.

They capture a specific point about something in the world; providing an instant hold and connection to reality and yourself. They give joy and aid you to feel understood and expressed. Not only do they offer tons of ideas for my writing but they are a solid and deep way I’m able to encourage a client by sending off a relevant quote to help them as they look for answers and solutions to their questions.

For such a small tool they sure do a lot!

Quotes can be a personal mantra or a watch word that you return to for peace and motivation.

Frequently, quotes create the change you’ve been looking for.

In my search I also ran across negative expressions of gratitude and it stopped me. I didn’t expect it because of the pleasure I get reading about gratitude.  I should have been more aware of the other possibility because I know not everyone likes gratitude. Not everyone feels being grateful is necessary or beneficial in any way.

Ingratitude is so easy

It’s hard for anyone to look back and acknowledge how they have been unjust to other people in their lives, greedy, selfish and ungrateful.

The shame and discomfort I feel about these things is always useful to me and I use it to learn from and improve. I study my faults and short comings and always try to change them into personal growth; seeing how I can be a better person, different. Not to punish myself as I once did but to instill change.

Judging other people and things was a bad habit of mine and I didn’t like myself for being so judgmental. It’s unkind and that’s not how I want to live my life.

Judgment is ingratitude because when you focus on the flaws of people you wipe out their meaning.

I remember a time in college when I was auditioning to sing with the Syracuse Symphony. A young woman stood up preparing to sing and I started to immediately judge her – her hair was frizzy and wild, she wore an oversized man’s brown and white checkered flannel shirt, untucked, with green corduroy pants. Not at all how you should look and dress for the audition. To me she had no value at all but when she opened her mouth, out soared the most beautiful sound…lovely, free, generous, effortlessly spinning and filling the hall with warm, brilliant tones and full, deep, rich, authentic feeling. It was shear, boundless gratitude.

I was so ashamed of how I had quickly summed her up…ruthlessly cutting her down by focusing only on her appearance. I ignored her world meaning, her abilities and feelings. I never forgot her name or the incident because it was such a valuable lesson for me. It’s metaphorical but I learned — ‘never judge a book by its cover’. That’s exactly how I said it to myself that day.

My superiority was ingratitude. My small, ugly way of thinking about this person, tearing her down before I  knew anything about her was disgraceful; an attitude I wanted to eliminate from my life.

Ingratitude is so easy and… you pay for it.

• Ingratitude makes for coldness and cruelty.

• Ingratitude cheats you of genuine feeling.

• Ingratitude bloats your ego and falsely builds you up.

• Ingratitude makes for loneliness, lack of sound judgment and trust.

• Ingratitude is against love.

• Ingratitude is against art.

My first impressions of the young singer show all of this to be true. My personal shame and regret were the best alarms of injustice for me.

Gratitude has side-effects

It’s a conscious choice and active belief that being grateful is a benefit and life force for you.

It’s something I cannot live without and choose to live with daily.

– Gratitude makes you larger. It empowers you and makes you kinder.

– Emotions and confidence grow with gratitude and you feel good.

– You’re alive being grateful; happy, sharp, present, full, loving.

– Gratitude makes for generosity because you think about other people, their welfare and go out of your way to sincerely show it and give.

It’s why I ask my clients to start a gratitude journal and write down each night before bed, three things you’re grateful for that day. I do it myself every single night to promote the very best thing in me – my gratitude to the world, in three specific ways.

9 reasons you should want to be grateful

Here’s your challenge — Make time for yourself and Google – ‘Quotes about gratitude’. 

Write down the ones you like, see what happens to you and seriously ask:

– How does reading about gratitude affect me?

– Why do I like a specific gratitude quotation?

– What does a gratitude quote that I like say about what I want for my life?

– How important – or trivial – or necessary – or essential – or meaningless – or beneficial is gratitude for me?

* * *         * *        * * *

1. ‘At times our light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.’ – Albert Schweitzer

       2. ‘Ingratitude is monstrous.’ – Shakespeare

 3. ‘Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.’ – John Milton

4. ‘Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs.’ – Joseph Stalin

5. ‘Gratitude is a burden, and every burden is made to be shaken off.” – Denis Diderot

6. ‘Thank You is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.’ – Alice Walker

            7. ‘Gratitude – The meanest and most snivelling attribute in the world.’ – Dorothy Parker 

8. ‘Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of gratitude.’ – A..A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

 9.  ‘The single greatest thing you can do to change your life today would be to start being grateful for what you have right now. And the more grateful you are, the more you get.’ – Oprah

A stark and real choice — gratitude or scorn.

What runs you life?

Thanks – Michael

I think you will also like this – Gratitude – What is Working Well For You.
By passing this post along you’ll encourage fresh gratitude in others.