Gratefulness

The subtle act of gracefulness can never be overemphasized.

It is more than a character. Gratefulness comes with its own reward. 

What is gratefulness: gratefulness can be defined as an act of showing or expressing thanks, especially to another person. 

There is so much to be grateful for in our daily life, it’s difficult to actually acknowledge it all. When you are in a habitual, cyclic loop of wake/work/sleep/repeat, the sameness of every day life can tend to make the reality we inhabit somewhat humdrum, even boring or stultifying. 

It’s amazing that we have this one finite life (however you add up your own version of beyond life) and we end up bored and discontent within it. How could that be possible?

Perhaps a different approach is called for, subtracting what you have from your life and then seeing how it feels. How would it feel if you lost your shelter? How would it feel is you lost your mobility? By approaching gratefulness in this manner, even if only for a few minutes, the depth of your gifts in life quickly start to add up.

The most powerful aspect of gratefulness is that of stillness. In gratefulness, we can simply let things be as they are and appreciate. In that still point, we can breathe and be and just admire the world as it is.

All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” 

Our discontent stems from within and is always a result of our interpretations of what is occurring in and around our life. Pain is the sensation, suffering is the mental attachment to or rejection of the experience. If you are not experiencing physical pain, yet you are suffering, the mind’s outlook and framework of your situation is to blame for this. 

It’s all very well to make lofty pronouncements of high-minded values. Every person ultimately has to make their own journey and find a measure of peace and well being within their spirit. Gratefulness is a lived experience, not a value to write in a journal and forget about. It’s something to breathe in and out on a moment to moment basis. 

By keeping gratefulness close to your awareness as much as possible during the day, you can rewrite your own internal map of what’s important and what is simply window dressing on the architecture of your life. The new gadget will become the old, unwanted gadget soon enough, the amazing tweet or social media viral sensation will become forgotten in due time. 

Give yourself time to be alone, to drink in the amazing spectacle of the cosmos around you and be grateful.