Some make gratitude a practice carving out some time each day to consciously reflect and be grateful. Perhaps for the day, for the good things, the happy moments, for the fun and nourishing experiences, the new and exciting opportunities, the wonderful connections and lovely people that we have in our lives.
We may create a ‘gratitude journal’ and write down what we are grateful for. This becomes another way of expressing our thanks and can make a useful tool and reminder when there appears to be little to be grateful for.
It may be you turn to your partner, a friend, a colleague or a total stranger and let them know how grateful you are; perhaps for something they have done, how they have made you feel or just for being themselves.
Perhaps in hindsight, after a traumatic, testing or tough experience, there is gratitude for the experience itself; for the insight, the learnings and the growth that it brought you, for where it has placed you now as a result, and for the very fact that you survived and are still here to tell the tale.
Sometimes we can pretend to be grateful for the difficult times, expressing our gratitude through gritted teeth because we believe we are supposed to be grateful and don’t want to seem ungrateful to others, God or the universe. But… the truth is really we are not.
It may be too early or maybe it was absolute hell and we will never be grateful and that is OK too.
It is often easier to be grateful and comes more naturally on ‘good’ days.
Some days you won’t feel grateful and maybe we can learn to be grateful for those days too.
Sometimes gratitude gets mixed in with manifestation leaning into the idea that if I am grateful then more good things will happen for me.
‘Dear God, please keep sending me the ‘good’ stuff and keep the ‘bad’ dreaded stuff away!’
Now I am not sure whether life works that way or not and whether gratitude has then become tainted with something else?
Often gratitude is expressed for what appears to be external, but we can also turn it around and bring that sense of gratitude to ourselves.
There are so many varied expressions of gratitude.
I would like to offer one more perspective…
That gratitude can be expressed just because life is,
Just because it is!
Grateful not because something is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, to our personal liking or agreement; that we are better or worse off than someone, anyone else; not because it brought insight or revelation but purely and simply because it is!
Let there be a movement towards ‘what is’,
Free from any future expectation, agenda or goal.
Let it be transparent in its complete and utter beauty,
Allow it to rise up and be free from manipulation and force.
Is there anything more remarkable and extra-ordinary than what is happening right now?
Anything more amazing and breathtaking than this?
The rain as it falls, the warmth in my heart, the spot on my face, the pen in my hand, the feeling of the paper, the tiredness in the body, the words as they appear, the silence, the noise from the family next door, the way the door opens, the colour of my curtains with their faded and worn out parts, this miracle of life, the very fact that I am here and so are you too!
What on earth could be more magnificent than this?
This is life in its unbridled, unashamed, timeless simplicity.
Surely this is something to be grateful for?
Maybe it is all that there is to be grateful for?
Complete in its absolute completeness!
Here is the place where trust ends and devotion begins.
Let there be an outpouring of gratitude and thanks.
The grateful one themself disappears and all that is left is this immense ocean of gratitude and love!