Gratitude is the best attitude. Feeling grateful for one’s blessing is the best gift one can give for self. Gratitude opens many doors for happy living. Though we are blessed with nature’s abundance, we always feel the scarcity. We are profoundly surrounded with good people, love, care and affection but we feel the presence of so called bad people, hatred and enmity.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Similarly choosing to be grateful is one’s choice.
It’s a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives in terms of tangible or intangible benefits. Gratitude is a feel expressed in the form of gratefulness and thanking each and eveything that happens in our life and around us.
Such feelings are expressed through words and approach. Change in a word do wonders in life. A very common story, a poor blind boy sat on the road, holding a placard saying “I am blind, please help”. There were passer-bys dropped few coins into the hat of that blind boy. A lady, who happened to cross the boy, stopped there and dropped few coins into the hat. She then took the placard and wrote few words and put it back into its place. Soon the hat began to fill up with coins.
The boy was curious, what would have changed in few minutes. In the evening, the same lady came to see, how things were. The boy recognized her footsteps and asked, “Are you the one who put changes in my placard this morning? If so, what did you write? The lady said, I wrote the truth in a different way, “It’s a beautiful world, you can see it, but I can’t see” Both signs told people that the boy was blind, the first sign simply said the fact that the boy was blind, the second sign said you are blessed or lucky to see the world. It reminds them of their blessings and being thankful for the same. They expressed their gratitude through helping the boy.
A small change in words and the way it’s expressed did made a lot of difference in boy’s life. We never feel or realize the blessings we enjoy in life. Only in the absence of light, we see the darkness. In other ways, presence of darkness in mind fades the brightness within us.
Practising and cultivating gratitude in life will help to see the presence of light and happiness around us. This help to focus on goals, see positivity and happiness in life. Few ways to cultivate a sense of gratitude includes write thanking notes, count your blessings, be grateful for the things you received, maintain gratitude journal and more importantly express your gratitude.
In positive psychology research says, gratitude is strongly associated with greater happiness. It helps people feel more positive, relish good experiences, accept things naturally, feel good about themselves and others, deals with adversity, build strong relationship, manage emotions and express right feelings and behavior, improves health, create positive environment and nurture people. The struggle ends when gratitude begins. It’s beyond thankfullness and way of living!
Chellam Narendiran
Srijan Counselling Services
+91 – 98433 14949
