Expressing Gratitude

I was browsing some photos looking for something different to put on my iPhone wallpaper when I came across one with an interesting quote by William Arthur Ward.  It was a picture of someone wrapping a gift and it said, “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a gift and not giving it.”

How true.  How many of us are really grateful for the people in our lives, for all the things they do, for all the ways they care for us and about us – and yet, we never let them know?  How many of us have a mental “closet” filled with carefully wrapped gifts that we have never given to those we care most about?

“Well, my loved ones KNOW I appreciate them,” is what many people say.  But is that really the case?  How can your loved ones possibly know for sure how you really feel unless you specifically tell them – unless you actually give them the gift of gratitude?

Make it a pledge that anytime you feel gratitude, you’ll express it right then and there.  You don’t have to make a big production about it.  Just a simple “thank you” will suffice.   This can include times like:

• Your spouse brings you a cup of coffee, or is just there for you when you’re feeling low.
• A co-worker holds the door or the elevator for you.
• A complete stranger lets you merge in front of them when they could have easily cut you off.
• You wake up feeling like it’s great to be alive.
• You see a rainbow or a beautiful sunset.

Or any one of a million things that can fill your entire being with a feeling of gratitude and thankfulness.  Go ahead and actually say the words, “thank you.”  Say it to the people around you, say it to the world, say it to God – just say it.  You’ll be amazed at how good it makes you feel as well as how it will change your outlook on life.  You’ll also be amazed at how differently people perceive you.

It’s a simple fact that the more you express gratitude, the more things to be grateful about will naturally come into your life.  Give it try and see if I’m not right.

Meister Eckhart, a medieval German philosopher said that, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”

Amen.

Hiram
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: spiritual, gratitude, thankfulness, philosophy, life, attitude, mental health, balance

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