Attitude of Gratitude

Every year for thanksgiving, a group of friends and I get together with our families for dinner.  We go around the table and every person talks about what they are grateful for. Usually people talk about their family, friends, and their major accomplishments that year. As for myself, I am grateful for my parents and my siblings. I am grateful for my husband and our beautiful daughters. I am grateful for all my nieces and in-laws. Last but certainly not least, I am grateful for the wonderful friends that I have. Typically, that is what my “words of thanks” sound like and I am happy and relieved when my turn is over 🙂 . While what I expressed were my true feelings, to me, it was still just an uncomfortable social exercise.

The popular movie, The Secret talks about “the law of attraction,” which states that like attracts like; you attract to you that which is a vibrational match to your frequency. Proponents of the law of attraction say that you have to be in a vibrational match with your desires and intentions in order to manifest them. One of the practical ways suggested to be at a higher vibration is to practice the attitude of gratitude.

“Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important, and by far the most life-changing.”
– Zig Ziglar

According to motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, “The more you recognize and express gratitude for the things you have, the more things you will have to express gratitude for.” Zig also said that “Without gratitude, happiness is rare. With gratitude, the odds for happiness go up dramatically.”

Most of us were trained as children to say please and thank you. I was really good at saying thank you. However, even though I was truly thankful to whoever I was saying thank you to, it was more of a social norm that I had no problem following. It wasn’t until I saw The Secret for the first time that I had ever contemplated gratitude in my life. Until then, to me “thank you” was something I would say in exchange for something I received from someone, mostly material things. After watching The Secret I explored different techniques to strengthen my gratitude muscle. I wrote in my gratitude journal. I carried a counter with me that I would increment each time I felt thankful for someone or something. Initially, it mostly used to be gratitude for material things that I newly acquired. I slowly progressed to being grateful for the many things I had that I took for granted, my home, car, job, all the special people in my life that I am blessed with. Then I had heard the suggestion to feel grateful for even things like the air I am breathing. I felt silly even thinking about it. It took me a long time to get to even wanting to attempt that, but I did get there. I made the leap of being grateful for something that wasn’t in the health, wealth, or relationships categories. I started to appreciate and be thankful for mundane things like air and water. Then, something magical happened this year.

I have witnessed over twenty seasons of fall in the beautiful state of Maryland. Many years ago, my family and I would drive up to the mountains to see the fall colors. When we got up there, I would witness the beautiful sight for a few minutes and then I was done. After a few minutes, I would feel like I had seen it all and at that point it was all the same. Going to the mountains to see the fall colors was more of an item on my to-do checklist. Fall this year was different. As the leaves had just begun to change color in early fall, one day as I was driving to work, I started to notice the beauty of nature. Then little by little I began to take in the immense beauty of the trees, the skies, the rising sun and all the beautiful colors. It felt like I was driving through a massive, exquisite painting. As I was admiring the beauty of nature like I never had before, a great sense of gratitude came over me: gratitude for being alive, being in a physical body, and being able to experience nature’s beauty in this sensory way. It was a profound experience that I cannot completely articulate. Since then, each day when I am outside, I am so appreciative of nature’s beauty and having the opportunity to experience fall in this region. I have completely imbibed every bit of what nature had to offer this fall season. Having this deep sense of gratitude also led me to experience a deeper sense of happiness and joy.

What are you deeply grateful for? I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving! May it be filled with gratitude.