|
Trees and Rocks, Lough
Gill, Sligo by Tony Cuckson
The
Practice of Gratitude:
The Secret of Happiness
The more mileage I put on this body’s
clock, the more I become convinced that gratitude is the secret to
happiness.
This may be a bit difficult because one of
our culture’s favourite maxims is “It is better to give than
receive.” But
bless those on the receiving end for their gratitude shall show us
all the way.
We tend to minimize our gratitude. We may rattle off a grace before a meal but do we thank the
cook who prepared it? Or
we give an automatic thank you to someone who holds the elevator for
us because they have noticed us barreling along all rushed and
flustered because we are late for an appointment. These are small
gestures that crop up in our daily lives. We really need to let all
these ‘small events’ stop us in our tracks and give us the
opportunity to make conscious and truly heartfelt thanks.
We need to not curtly say, “Thanks” out
of social habit. We
need to learn again how to mean it when we say “Thank you.”
The practice of giving thanks is one is which giving and
receiving are a unified and whole act.
Perhaps the best way to practice giving
thanks is to write out a thankfulness list every day.
You can get a special blank book or gratitude diary if that
will help you make this a daily ritual. But you can also use a plain
school jotter and decorate it with images that remind your of a
heartfelt sense of gratitude These special gratitude diaries or your
decorated school jotter will give you helpful reminders on days when
you may think you have not one single line to write.
And there will be days like that.
Nonetheless, set yourself a target. Will you
write five or ten or fifteen items that make you feel truly grateful
each day? It’s up to you to decide. Or you could just plan on
filling a page. Date your lists for those days when you may not feel
you have anything to write. Go back and read previous entries. One
will tug at your heart. Then write: “Thank you for X on 18th
February 2009.” Let the memory make you smile. Now! You are
smiling. Then you can write: “Thank you for making me smile just
now.” “Thank you for this journal.” Okay, you’re off. You
may suddenly find other things that make you feel thankful.
Some people go to the gym because they feel
that exercise keeps their heart healthy. I am of the way of thinking
that exercising the gratitude muscle will keep the heart healthy,
too.
Another way you might extend your practice of
giving thanks is to make sure you have a stock of beautiful note
cards or even a pack of 'Thank You’ cards in your desk drawer.
When someone does you a good turn, consider sending them a thank you
card in the mail. They may not even have noticed that what they did
was particularly worthy of appreciation. Your giving thanks will
give them pause and they in turn may feel grateful to you. You set
up a gratitude chain reaction.
When I begin to think about it giving thanks
is the total antidote to taking anything or anyone for granted. How often have we heard someone say as his or her
relationship or marriage is disintegrating, “He/she takes me for
granted.” It’s a
common complaint about bosses too, not just spouses.
It’s in the details that makes this
gratitude practice such a rich seam to mine.
Yesterday, I felt a huge wave of gratitude when I was out
walking the dogs. I was suddenly aware of that rich, indefinable
scent of damp earth that is green and signals that the season is
about to turn. Spring is on the ascendant. Then I spotted the first
snowdrops in flower.
Thank you, Good Earth.
As I am writing this article in first draft I
am conscious that I am really grateful for the clever engineering
and technological wit that created the Marathon Gel pen.
It gives me a sensation of fluency, the ink keeping up with
the thoughts that are collecting thick and fast on the page. It is a
pleasure to write with such a pen.
Thank you, to those who
design, make and create.
When I pause to gather a thought, I am aware of the birds
chattering and twittering outside my window. There are chirrups,
trills and a repeated um-hum.
It’s time to start dating, mating and nesting again. The
excitement of the robins, thrushes, coal tits, wrens and many other
species is contagious.
Thank you, birds who carol
us into springtime.
If you begin this you may find that you have an incredibly
long list of miracles that occur on a daily basis.
Thank you, reader.
©
Bee Smith 2009
Another
Soul Friend
"click
on graphic."
At
the beginning of this book the Irish mystic George Russell (AE)
wrote:
"I
d o not think the East has spoken with so beautiful a voice since the
Gitanjali of Rabindranath Tagore as in The Prophet of Kahlil Gibran,
who is artist as well as poet. I have not seen for years a
book more beautiful in its thought, and when reading it I understand
better than ever before what Socrates meant in the Banquet when he
spoke of the beauty of thought which exercises a deeper
enchantment than the beauty of form..... I could quote from every
page, and from every page I could find some beautiful and liberating
thought."
THE
ANAMCARA INVITATION
The invitation to Soul Friendship is always available.
There is, however, a price to pay. You are invited to trade
rags for riches. You are invited to give away doubts, fears, sorrows
and other rags for the diamond that you already are. There is no greater
invitation than to become an Anam Cara - a friend to your soul.
To learn more about this radiant diamond within and how to awaken
your beauty from its sleep of many years you are invited to subscribe
to our FREE weekly Newsletter entitled The Anamcara
Experience
This Newsletter includes articles which invite all the experiences listed above.
These articles include spiritual stories, articles about songs - modern
and old, articles about the power of spiritual poetry and many other
aspects of spiritual development and much more.
As a thank you for being willing to accept this invitation you will receive
a short but powerful FREE REPORT entitled "7 Ways to a Wonderful
Life." Simply subscribe now without obligation and begin today the
journey into a wonderful life of an Anam Cara - soul friend
| Subscribe
NOW to the weekly inspirational Newsletter
Reflections on Radiance and receive an additional FREE report
entitled
"7
Ways Towards Finding It's a
Wonderful Life!"
Your
Privacy Is Assured. We Will Never Rent Your Email Address
|
| 
