Enriching Your Life With Gratitude:

Practicing Gratitude to Live Rich

Gratitude: A Basic Practice
Practicing gratitude has long been known as both a way of life and a state of mind. Gratitude may also be regarded as something that brings sense into your life. The practice of gratitude may come with rules that reveal a series of relationships that connect you to the universe and the divine.
Knowing how to practice gratitude is just as simple as saying thank you for whatever experience, whether happy or trying, as well as the people, memories and all other things that you have in your life. Practicing gratitude means counting your blessings and thanking God for them. When you always count and appreciate your blessings, you make a life that is truly blessed and enriching.
Why you should practice gratitude
The series of relationships that may be connected with gratitude may range from greed, jealousy, and entitlement, taking things for granted, to acceptance, appreciation and satisfaction. Practicing gratitude may just be the right prescription to whichever best describes the attitude that you have.
However, the practice of gratitude may not be as simple as it may seem. For instance, you may greedily find yourself wanting more or better or something else instead of appreciating what you already have. This may not make you truly grateful as you are considering other possibilities or that you are creating comparisons.
If this happens to you for the purpose of self-preservation and your ego becomes dissatisfied, then you tend to become ungrateful. However, this may not always be the case. If you want something better, different or more for the benefit of other people, then this so-called greed may just be a demonstration of altruism or devotion, which therefore makes you grateful for such commitments.
Gratitude is more than just about being thankful – it is a constant practice. When you learn to practice gratitude and make it an indispensable part of your daily routine then you can live a happier, more blessed and enriching life. Here are some reasons why it can turn your life around positively:
Gratitude is Presence.
Practicing gratitude is like waking up to a brand new day, realizing your presence and noticing the many things around you. Many people nowadays have become too preoccupied about what is going to happen next while there are those that are still could not move on with their lives because they are still wallowing about sad, horrible or painful experiences. These hinder them from waking up and experiencing what the present has to offer, failing to realize that the present is yet a moment to capture and behold.
Gratitude is Attraction.
It may be difficult for joy, prosperity and peace to come into your life if you tend to look down, refuse or look past what is already there. You are more likely to say no whenever you delve too much on your past or future or whenever you mostly criticize what you have at present. However, you can attract positive things into your life when you learn to appreciate the value of the things and the people that you have right now.
Gratitude is Choice.
The way by which you translate a given circumstance is the circumstance in itself, and the things that you choose to see, feel, hear or believe can become the truth to you. This is not to say that you are living in a state of denial or pretense. This only serves to remind you that you decide how you choose to live your life or any circumstance for that matter. The choice to look at things and life in general is always yours. Make gratitude your choice.
Gratitude is Creativity.
Being creative is about attention. Say for example when you are writing a song. An important element to writing a good song is to establish a relationship with the song itself by feeling it with all your emotions. Or say when you are a serious photographer. You spend time and focus well on your subject to get the best possible picture.
The same goes with gratitude. Practicing gratitude is a creative way of noticing and paying attention to people, things, moments and experiences that define your life. There are a lot of things that you should be thankful for and when you are able to notice them, then you are doing yourself a good job at being creative.
Gratitude is Honoring Life.
There may come a time in your life when you feel as if you are losing yourself wondering how you can live up to or exceed the expectations of other people towards you. This situation may lead you to compare yourself with that of another person or wish that your life were even better or more than someone else's. Comparing yourself to other people can kill your positivity. You can never be compared to someone else because you are special and unique in your own way. An antidote to this is gratitude.
You can make your life more meaningful when you learn to practice gratitude. It compels you to accept, appreciate and embrace the things that you have and those that make you who you are. These include the steps you have made, the experiences you have gone through and the path you are taking on. All these are the things that have helped to mold and bring you to where you are now. Even when you feel that this present moment needs improvement or change, you should still be thankful for it. Keep in mind that the present moment can have so many gifts to offer you as well.
Gratitude is Receptivity.
When you learn to practice gratitude you also learn to become more receptive. When you are more receptive, you become more open to opportunities and possibilities that can make your life more enriching. And when you believe that there is still more in store for you, then it can really happen. That is what gratitude can do to your life.
Gratitude is Recognition.
Use the power of the mind to bring out the beauty that is just around you, but which you may have failed to notice. Believe in the force that the mind holds so that you can recognize the essence of life that is just around you.
Gratitude is Wisdom.
Many people can be tricked into believing that they are being smart when they delve more on the problems affecting the world and the people around, or complain and criticize too much. Being critical and looking at life in its dark, inconsolable mysteries may not necessarily be a bad thing. It only becomes a problem when you focus on it too much. Try to let peace and joy rule more in your inner being. Choose joy, appreciate your blessings and let it grow in your life.
How to practice gratitude
Learning the art of gratitude may seem easy but it can actually be very tricky. Some people start off practicing gratitude at a smooth and steady pace at first, but then stop when they reach a point in their life in which they are already being tested and hard-pressed.
You may want to make a good jumpstart by keeping a gratitude journal. A gratitude journal can help you especially if you have this tendency to be shrouded with doubt or suspicion upon experiencing something good or positive. This is especially common among artists, writers, poets and others who lean more towards the creative side, wherein they are usually in tune with their dark, angsty side, often being reflected in their views about their personal lives and life in general. You can turn this situation around in a creative and smooth way by keeping a gratitude journal.
In your gratitude journal, write down the things that you are grateful for. It could be your promising career, good health, supportive friends, adorable pet or trustworthy employee. Always make it a habit to jot down what you are thankful for. Note them all down even whether you feel as if you have just about so much, more so when you can not think of anything at all. If you cannot seem to think of a thing to be grateful for, then that is where the twist starts, in which you should take note of the littlest things that still matter in your life, such as having food to eat, that you have a bed to retire to, that you had a good sleep or that you still have enough money to last you for a week, perhaps. Always find time to write these things no matter what you may be feeling and no matter how redundant they are.
The things that you should be grateful for do not always have to be different and new. An ideal time to write them down is at night before going to bed so you can be finely tuned throughout the following day. Make a mental note of the activities that you have done during the day and make sure to put in your gratitude journal those that you are thankful for, no matter how big or little it may be. When you go over your gratitude journal, you may find that you actually have so many things going for you because you take notice and appreciate them.
Gratitude: Its Benefits
You may ask what exactly do you get when you practice the art of gratitude? Plenty. People who habitually practice gratitude and make it an inevitable part of their daily life have a lead over the ones that do not. This is especially true with regard to health. In one research on gratitude conducted by Emmons, it was found that grateful people are more conscious of their health and take better care of themselves by getting active and living a healthy lifestyle.
Gratitude Boosts the Immune System
In a research conducted by the University of Utah, it was found that grateful people are more optimistic. This characteristic has been linked to have an effect on boosting the immune system. Being optimistic also has a positive effect on those with conditional health cases. Separate studies have shown that optimistic patients have better chances of surviving their health conditions or coming out of surgical operations.
Gratitude Combats Stress
Anyone can be a victim of stress. And not being able to deal with stress can be very detrimental to one's health. Many studies have shown that stress is one of the main causes of fatal diseases such as cancer, heart disease, obesity and many more. But with the practice of gratitude, you can better cope with stress. Research on gratitude suggests that stress levels can be significantly reduced when one is thankful and able to see the value of things and happenings around him.
Gratitude as a source of strength
It is still and always possible to feel a sense of gratitude even when faced with a huge blow, tragedy or loss. As a matter of fact, recent findings have shown that tragic events or negative circumstances can boost your feeling of gratitude even more. In a web-based survey conducted among 3,000 American respondents, there was a high surge of a sense of gratitude noted following the September 11, 2001 attack. You may be wondering how losses, tragic events or negative circumstances can trigger gratitude more and the effects that come with it. This is because these situations can actually encourage personal growth. This, however, does not mean that you have to wait for something adverse to happen just to cultivate gratitude.
Keep in mind that you can only feel gratitude when you allow it to; and your sense of gratitude rests on how you look at your self and life as a whole. You do not have to very mindful about what you have – you just need to appreciate them and realize their worth. You may not know it, but gratitude can actually be the best approach to your life.