This past weekend we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in Saratoga Springs, NY.
We got together with our daughter and son-in-law who live there and our son joined us from Toronto. Along with the 3 dogs, we climbed one of the nearby Adirondack mountains in the rain! I had no idea how far it was until I looked at my iPhone health app which indicated that we walked 7 km and up to the equivalent of 41 floors.
This special occasion comes once a year, but why not give thanks for our life, our health, our family, our friends, and of course, our pets everyday?
“Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude.” -Nigel Hamilton, award winning British biographer
It made me think of the importance of being grateful all the time and the impact it can have on all of us, if we let it.
I know for me, it takes a paradigm shift to be grateful every day. Like many people, we can easily become ungrateful, due to bad experiences, trauma and disappointment in others and ourselves. So that’s why I work on making a conscious effort to focus and practice on being grateful.
How about you? Where are you at in your practice of gratefulness?
It is a powerful thing to be grateful.
Here’s what I found when we are grateful human beings. It changes many things about us:
We have a positive attitude.
We are happy with who we are and what we are. We can roll with the punches. We are resilient. We are not complainers because we are looking at what is good in our life and thankful for it. The glass is always half full, not half empty. There is a positive side to everything that happens to us.
We appreciate our life, ourselves and others.
We do not compare ourselves to others and what they have. We are not materialistic. We are content with what we have achieved so far in life. It does not mean we do not want to achieve more or do more in life, but it means we are proud of of our life so far. We are also appreciative of how others have helped us along the way. “Be thankful for what you have; you will end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never ever have enough.” – Oprah Winfrey
We are giving.
Because we are grateful, we want to help others. To be grateful is to be a giver, not a taker. We want to make an impact in some way, and we cannot do this unless we give of ourselves. Whether it is through monetary contributions, our service, or our support in times of crisis, emergency or distress, we need to and want to give back. By doing so, we are only then truly grateful for who we are.
We are inspired with our life.
We are energetic, hopeful and fun-loving. We want to do more. We motivate others, and show them how to be grateful too. Our gratefulness rubs off on others because of our enthusiasm. We attract others to us.
We are always caring and compassionate individuals.
We listen, we understand and we care. We are empathetic because we are grateful. By doing so, we are then true human beings. So gratitude is powerful. But it can only be powerful if you are grateful every day.
“Gratitude is a powerful process for shifting your energy and bringing more of what you want into your life. Be grateful for what you already have and you will attract more good things.” – Rhonda Byrne, The Secret
So I hope you make a decision to use the power of gratitude.
Have your day begin and end with gratitude. You will be glad you did!