Gratitude

When I talk about gratitude, I promise you I am not talking about standing on one leg in a field beneath a starry night sky with a full moon chanting or praying. Nor breaking dawn in the same one-leg pose chanting toxic positivity. No.

I am talking about small day-to-day acts with big impacts. Like saying thank you. If you have attended Talking Through Torment you know those two words can save a life.

Roz

Gratitude Means

The word gratitude comes from the Latin word gratia, which means grace, graciousness, or gratefulness. We can experience the gift of gratitude in a myriad of ways, from a stranger’s smile to an unexpected opportunity.

gratitude jar

Cultivate Gratitude

Gratitude helps us with positive emotions and to relish good experiences. I keep a gratitude journal. Crazy hours mean that I don’t always complete it every day. But, I do say thank you and count my blessings daily. And you can too. Now that doesn’t mean telling ourselves others have it worse. Start or nurture your relationship with gratitude by always remembering to say thank you. And it doesn’t have to be to somebody, just say it. Find the time to pause, perhaps weekly, and count your blessings. And use your meditation and prayers to remember the good things for which you are grateful. That may include hearing the birds, the sun’s warmth, and having people who share our life. The practice will change how your brain works and hardwire your path to happiness.

Gratitude is officially good for your health. Research has found that it is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. That is partly because gratitude is recognition that goodness also happens outside of ourselves. Even just saying thank you makes a difference to our well-being. There is nothing so small we cannot be grateful for it.

Soul Pancake ran an experiment. Volunteers wrote down the name of a person to whom they were grateful. They included the reasons they were grateful. The volunteers experienced a tremendous rise in their happiness when they called the person to say thank you.

If my words and work have moved, inspired, or helped you in any way, you can express your thanks with a gift of gratitude. Your gift can be to support my work at littlero.org by donating on the button on the right or the bottom of the page on a mobile device. I also appreciate reading your words or poetic verse via my contact form.

Thank you for checking out rozetwaria.com




Winnie the Pooh and piglet

 

Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.