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At Thanksgiving time, we’re reminded to be thankful of all that we have. I’ve heard it said that while “thankfulness is passive, gratitude is active.”
I first discovered the power of gratitude when a close friend was struggling with depression. As a way of supporting her, I suggested we start of practice of writing a daily gratitude list of five things. I was curious to see if it changed anything about how we felt.
The results were phenomenal. We were both taken to a heightened level of appreciation for our lives – truly seeing and embracing the people, circumstances and things around us.
When you’re incorporating more gratitude into your life, be careful not to use it to invalidate your feelings. For example, “With everything I’ve been blessed with in my life, how can I be upset about not getting that job I really wanted?”
Gratitude should never be invalidating. Be sure to seek out support from a therapist, friend or family member who can validate your feelings. Then you can experiment with cultivating gratitude.
When looking for healing and recovery, including a gratitude practice, a lot of people look first for a book, method or guru to follow – something outside themselves. Gratitude really comes from within, from a strong, quiet connection with the self – the Higher Self, the heart and soul of oneself.
We’ll talk in a follow up post about different ways to center and find that part of yourself, in order to cultivate a feeling of gratitude. In the meantime, please see this previous post for tips on how to find and express your gratitude.