Expressing Gratitude
We choose our thoughts. We can think positively or we can think negatively, and as a result we have the power to change our lives by simply changing our belief systems.
But to those who say that despite their positive attitudes, they’re situations haven’t changed, I would suggest they lack the not so secret ingredient that gives positive thought meaning. and provides perspective on all that matters. The component is gratitude, and unless we cultivate it, we lack the appreciation for what really matters in life.
I find that that everything in life is either a bit of a miracle, or an opportunity; and those are the things we most often don’t appreciate and take for granted.
For example, I woke up this morning, and saw the sun shining through the window. I’m alive. (Hooray. That’s a miracle). It’s a beautiful day. (Another miracle). My home is warm and coffee is brewing. (That’s a miracle, especially considering those who have no homes, let alone no coffee). Look at the miracles I’ve already experienced today – and I haven’t even left the house yet.
I think about those who have far less than me, and others who have far more, and about the things they may lack or have in their lives and I wouldn’t want that for me. I’m grateful for what I have.
As I go through life, I’ve come to realize that the more we focus on what we want, the less we realize the value of what we have, and until we understand and appreciate it, no amount of positive thinking will change our worlds.
Here are 18 thoughts on the importance of gratitude. I hope they inspire you to realize the simple miracles that comprise our daily lives:
- “If you count all your assets, you always show a profit.” – Robert Quillen
- “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Brault
- “When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” – Willie Nelson
- “It is impossible to feel grateful and depressed in the same moment.” Naomi Williams
- “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.” – Frank A. Clark
- “Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melody Beattie
- “We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count.” – Neal A. Maxwell
- “This a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before.” – Maya Angelou
- “In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures,” -Thornton Wilder
- “Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.” – William Faulkner
- “The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.” – Neale Donald Walsch
- “If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily.” – Gerald Good
- ‘The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings” -Eric Hoffer
- “We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” – Cynthia Ozick
- “Do not take anything for granted — not one smile or one person or one rainbow or one breath, or one night in your cozy bed.” -Terri Guillemets
- “Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.” – Aldous Huxley
- “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” -John Fitzgerald Kennedy
- “Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” – A.A. Milne
- “Gratitude and attitude are not challenges; they are choices.” – Robert Braathe
I wish you all a miraculous week.