Gratitude is an attitude. Gratitude is a choice. And gratitude is a habit.
Gratitude is our emotion that relates to our ability to feel and express thankfulness and appreciation. Being grateful also impacts the overall experience of happiness, and these effects tend to be long-lasting.
Gratitude is an absolute appreciation for life. Just as with wealth you must have appreciation in order for it to grow, so too with your body – if it’s not growing its decaying and disease is simply a decay process. If we’re not appreciative we can’t grow – appreciation is an absolutely essential component of the growth and maintenance of a body. In fact your body will give you symptoms and create disease to try to get you to appreciate it.
“None is more impoverished than the one who has no gratitude. Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy.” —Fred De Witt Van Amburgh
Many scientific studies, including research by renowned psychologists Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, have found that people who consciously focus on gratitude experience greater emotional well-being and physical health than those who don’t. In comparison with control groups, those who cultivated a grateful outlook:
- Felt better about their lives as a whole
- Experienced greater levels of joy and happiness
- Felt optimistic about the future
- Got sick less often
- Exercised more regularly
- Had more energy, enthusiasm, determination, and focus
- Made greater progress toward achieving important personal goals
- Slept better and awoke feeling refreshed
- Felt stronger during trying times
- Enjoyed closer family ties
- Were more likely to help others and offer emotional support
- Experienced fewer symptoms of stress
Those who count their blessings, who are grateful, have more blessings and fulfillment in life than those who do not. This is a simple principle. Yet it has the power to change your life and the life of those you come on contact with. Gratitude is the key to healing, growth and fulfillment.
When you are grateful for life you open up the gateway of the heart and allow the love that is always waiting there to eternally express itself in the form of light or illumination in our consciousness.
