Falling In and Out of Gratitude

Four sure ways to recognize that you have fallen out of gratitude....

1) You are not saying thank you often enough. Often enough would be at least a gazillion times a day - only look at how much you have to be grateful for! The sun, the rain, the clouds, the trees, the birds, the shade, friends, family...the list goes on forever.

2) You are feeling angry. Anger is a sure sign of looking at a situation and expecting your own agenda rather than seeing it for what it really is. It is a reaction that says: It's not going my way ..!! Anger is about what you want and not necessarily about what God wants - always an invitation to look further to see if there is some blessing in disguise hiding beyond what you have seen.

3) You are listless, anxious, unmotivated or depressed. While there are clinical manifestations of these symptoms that need to be treated in a clinical setting, milder forms show up frequently in everyday life and signify almost exactly the same things as anger. It is an invitation to look at your expectations and to look at the situation to see whether you have your own agenda (and maybe some foot stomping too).

4) You are complaining or whining. Whining or complaining signal yet again that you have your own agenda you are expecting out of life and that you are not seeing the beauty of the situation for what it is, nor are you grateful for the blessings being offered up in the moment.

There's a definite pattern...the pattern is ego vs. presence. What "I" want, versus what God is offering as a gift at this moment.

The active and conscious pattern of gratitude is what helps you fall back into gratitude. It is so simple and so effective that within minutes you can be back on board, celebrating gratitude, rather than an array of other, more unsavory feelings (only witness how uncomfortable anger, listlessness, etc feel!).

Here is a recap on some favorite gratitude exercises:

1) Breathe in and say thank you, breathe out and say thank you. Repeat saying tahnk you on each inhale and exhale for 3 minutes.

2) Write down 50-100 things you are grateful for every day, or more often if you want. Always use a fresh piece of paper (or document, if you are typing) and don't look at previous versions. Try to add more each day.

Whatever your practice of gratitude is, if you find yourself out of gratitude, it's time to step up the practice and fall back in. Life is so full of amazing, wonderful, exciting, absolutely awesomeness - it's a shame to miss out on it.


Blessings.
- Darshan





(c) 2010 Darshan F Jessop