Why be grateful?

Why be grateful?

Some may think I am a bit late writing about gratitude and should have done so a couple of weeks ago on Thanksgiving.  But I avoided doing so quite deliberately.  It is very easy for us to restrict positive feelings and actions to certain seasons and then ignore them for the rest of the year.  Some of my readers who are in the United States may do that with giving thanks on Thanksgiving.  Some of my Christian readers may do that with a whole range of positive feelings and actions, including gratitude, at Christmas.  And some of my Muslim readers may do something similar during Ramadan.

Gratitude is not simply for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Ramadan.  It should be something we all practice every day.

When I asked the question "why be grateful?", how did that make you feel?  I would expect many readers immediately to think of things for which they are very grateful, even if it is "only" for the gift of life.  But others may have felt something negative.  We all experience low periods in our lives at some point, and if I happened to catch you in a low point in your life you may have reacted by thinking of all the bad things that have happened to you recently.  You may be tempted to say something like "it's all very well for you to tell me I should be grateful, but you don't know what I am going through right now!".  If that is you, let me say that you are quite right.  I do not know what you are going through, but I am really sorry you have to face it and I will hold you in the Light.  But also I can assure you that if you sit still, take a deep breath, and calm your mind you will find lots of things for which you should be grateful.

Assuming you have now identified the many things for which you should be grateful, let me ask you another question.  Why do you need to be grateful at all?  Why not just accept those things as your right and not bother to be grateful at all?

If you are at all religious you may simply say that God, or whatever else you may call the Supreme Being, requires this of you.

OK, that may be true, but I think it is also a bit of a cop out.  Is there any logical reason for being grateful, above and beyond what your religion may say?

There are many good reasons to express gratitude.

Firstly, if you express your gratitude out loud, to whoever deserves it, this can have tremendously positive results.  Positive feedback encourages the person who has done something good to do even more good.  Many people can then benefit from this, including perhaps yourself as well.  All for the small "cost" of saying thank you in a way that shows you genuinely mean it.  The world in which we live can be almost hell on earth or heaven on earth, often simply from the way people around us behave.  Your "thank you" to one of those people can be infectious, changing not only the way that person behaves but also the behaviour of the people around them too.  So the end result of your simple expression of gratitude could turn someone's hell into heaven.

Secondly, whether or not you say "thank you" out loud, if you feel really grateful for something this will be noted by your subconscious.  Now that subconscious is a very powerful entity.  If it recognizes that you are grateful for something it will try to give you more of it.

Just think a little about this second reason.  Think about some of the things for which you are grateful.  How would you like to have even more?  Isn't that a good feeling, knowing that all the good things you have in your life can keep growing and attract other, similar good things to you?

If you have been following my blog for some time you may remember that I have encouraged you to list all the things for which you should be grateful.  Try that now.  This should be a really long list.  If it is not, then there is something very wrong.  Now look at each item on the list and imagine having more of it or attracting to you something else that is very similar.  Then remind yourself that if you keep expressing gratitude for this thing, that is exactly what will happen.  Your life will get better and better.  Isn't that a great reason to be grateful?

Try this today, right now!  Start expressing your gratitude and see what a difference it makes in your life!

Thanksgiving and the Law of Polarity

For those of my readers based in the States, assuming you are reading this on the day it is published, tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day.  A day on which, naturally, we express our gratitude.

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about expressing gratitude, but if you are not actually grateful that is not possible to do.  Even if you think you are grateful, you may well find that there are many things for which you should be grateful but are not.  If you are not grateful for absolutely everything and everyone in your life, then you still have some work to do!  So today I want to explore gratitude more fully and link it to what I call "the law of polarity".

Some people list all the things that are wrong in their life and then more or less say "look at that list and tell me why I should be grateful!"  Those are people who have clearly not heard of the law of polarity.  This law says that everything has two equal and polar opposite sides.  Every situation that looks so bad has an equal measure of good if only you will look for it.

If you truly understand the law of polarity, this will change your life dramatically.

Everything that happens just “is”.  But like two sides of a coin it has one side that seems terrible and another that looks great.  You get to pick.  You can have the terrible side or the great side.  Which will you choose?  Whichever you choose, that is what will materialize.

Remind yourself that the universe is friendly to you.  There is a limitless supply of everything you require.  An infinite supply of money, clients, time, love, friendship, whatever.  No circumstances can leave you lacking in these things for long unless that is what you choose – consciously or unconsciously.  Don’t focus on the one you have just missed – focus instead on what is coming.

Next, remind yourself that you get to choose what to call the circumstances you are in.  You get to decide whether there is good or bad in them.  Sometimes it can be very difficult to see the good when you are right in the middle of something that seems so bad, but just understand it really is there.

The worst experiences you have should prove to be the greatest gifts.  They are your instructors.  Each one bears within it the seed of something that is amazing if you will only be ready to accept it.

Have you seen the film “Front of the Class”?  This is the true story of Brad Cohen, a man suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome who becomes a teacher.  Others suffering from this condition may have railed against it and asked why it had to be this way.  But Brad Cohen viewed his Tourette’s Syndrome as the best teacher he could have, showing him the way to become a very good teacher himself.  Brad certainly understands the law of polarity better than most people, and he has used it to great advantage.

Now that you too understand the law of polarity, you should use it to your advantage, just like Brad Cohen.

Begin by taking a sheet of paper and filling it with all the things for which you are grateful.  Make certain you have listed at least twenty-five or thirty items and that you have included at least a couple of items from each area of your life.  Include your monetary resources, health, career, relationships, recreation and anything else you can add to this list.

Stop right here and do the above before you read any further!

How did you find this exercise?  Was it easy?  Did you have any trouble making the list long enough?  A short list means there are still a lot of things in your life to which you have not yet applied the law of polarity.  These are the areas where you do not like things the way they are.  So here comes part two of the exercise:

Take another sheet of paper and make a different gratitude list, again covering all the different areas of your life.  However, for this list, begin with things you don’t like.  The boss with the bad attitude.  The car that won’t start.  Your ex.  Your cantankerous adolescent stepdaughter.  The tax man.  The pimple on your nose that won’t disappear.  The bills that keep arriving.

Now use the law of polarity.  Find the other side for each of these items.  For example, with the list I suggested in the previous paragraph you might enter the following:  Gratitude that you have a job.  Gratitude that you have a car.  Your fresh insights into relationships.  New parenting skills.  The money you have received on which you now have to pay tax.  A sound body.  The advantages of the merchandise and services you have received.  Get the idea?

Discover something to be thankful for in each of the items on your list and write it down.  Fill the paper with these gratitude assertions.

Again, don’t read any further until you have completed this exercise!

How was that?  Did you feel particular resistance to some of the items on this list?  Difficulty in finding the good side?  These are areas in your life where you particularly need to focus and find the good side, as they are the very areas that are holding you back.  Keep working on them until you have prised out those good points.  Any time you spend doing this will be well rewarded.

If you want to explore in more depth the law of polarity and the other laws which together allow you to use gratitude to create unlimited abundance, get yourself a copy of my e-book, "Gratitude Now".