Friday 2 March 2012

Developing The Attitude Of Gratitude

By Clifford Gill


Just what is an attitude of gratitude? People often think it will come from having some great luck or fortune. It may all be great and brilliant to win the lottery, own a Caddy, have the largest house on the block and hobnob with the rich and famous, but what else is lacking? Living the good life and enjoying it is really about states of mind. You need the attitude of gratitude.

Gratitude In A Nutshell

Anybody can live the good life if he or she is able to take a deep breath and thank the Lord Almighty, Jesus Christ or the entire cosmos for that matter. Whether or not you are religious, when you see life as a wonderful gift, your experience is a richer one. Imagine going through life like you're a child, and every morning is Christmas.

It may be simplistic, but understandable to associate gratitude with having our way around things. We might imagine ourselves giving thanks if we had money, a loving family, and maybe a house on the beach. But then again there are a lot of rich people who live unhappy, miserable and ungrateful lives. Conversely, a lot of financially challenged individuals are still grateful for what they have, little as it may be, but the question is - how come they feel this way?

The Human Gratitude Factory

Having an attitude of gratitude is all about how you see things in life. This feeling is unconditional and natural, and stems from how we react towards certain stimuli in our everyday lives - things and people alike. Look at the world through rose-tinted glasses with the glass always half-full and your attitude towards life will improve. That said, the gratitude factory churns it out through learning and constant self-encouragement.

First things first - wake up and smell the coffee. There are so many things to be thankful for - notice them and be thankful for them!

Now that you smell the coffee and realize how it is waking you up, make it a habit to be grateful. But that doesn't mean you should turn a blind eye on the nascent evil around us. Just consciously choose to see the good and beautiful things, until doing so becomes automatic.

One tool you could utilize, or actually two tools, would be pen and paper - write down every good thing that happens to you on a day-to-day basis. Continue this until you start automatically seeing the good things in life. Take the analogy of the white car - a person would buy one, and find his/her subconscious being altered by the awareness of seeing an entire highway of white cars. Compare it to seeing the good in people and in other stimuli - if you keep on looking for it, you will see it more frequently around you.

Use the techniques above - the pen and paper thing and the white car analogy - and your mind will find itself better conditioned. It will then become natural to Live The Good Life and count your blessings as you do so. So now you know everything you have to know about the attitude of gratitude.




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