The attitude of gratitude is essentially a state of Grace. This used to be a rare thing, attributed to holy people and men and women in habit. A lot of people are going around lately saying:
“I am very grateful” – That’s so easy to say that it’s becoming so commonplace as ‘thank you’ and ‘you’re welcome’ and ‘bye I love you’. BEING grateful is completely different – that is feeling gratitude – or being in a state of grace.
When we speak words, it is only half the story: the other half is often left unfinished. Saying the words doesn’t always make you feel them.
Feeling grateful can be hard. Have you ever been given a gift that you don’t like? it’s a bit like that. However, when you say ‘thank you’ it is a great start to acquire the attitude of gratitude.
How the words feel on the body is where the adventure of acquiring the attitude begins. Say something out loud and it already starts to feel real. “Thank you, I’m grateful.”
Give thanks and receive more It is said that you get more than you are thankful for and give thanks.
You can be grateful to the cook for presenting you with a great breakfast that warms you up to lunch more easily when it feels good in your stomach. Or you can be thankful to God for giving you the scenery as you admire the light and the clouds over the trees and the hills.
How can that manifest more? Maybe the tracking is a dry sandwich or it could be a wet and windy urban scene, littered with trash. Can that count as more of the same?
Yes you can. We are the ones who judge that one is ‘better’ than the other. A lovesick optimist can take in the dry sandwich and the urban scene with equal grace, hardly able to reject one or compare it to the other. A family that has lived in Scotland’s most desolate landscape might consider the idyllic Greek island a nearby wilderness. So those who choose extreme climates will continue to do so and thus get more of the same.
The transition from word to reality is the essence of creativity. The momentum from Word to Being is getting the perfect moment in the space you are in right now. Always now.
Cultivate the habit of being grateful for everything that comes to you; giving thanks continuously is a state of grace – being thankful. Recently, gratitude is being rediscovered outside the auspices of a purely religious connotation. It is the essential ingredient of the ‘Secret’ and humanity’s connection to the Original Substance, as proposed by Wattles in his famous ancient book, among many others.
HUMILITY – PARTNER OF GRATITUDE
SAYING is just the beginning. Humility is weightless. When a prayer or thank you is said in a humble state, it is light enough to capture the impulse of creativity from word to reality. There is no set timeline. This can change manifesting itself in a second or a slow, almost imperceptible change germinates.
And the manifestation sheds a light on the object of gratitude, things that you may just be beginning to recognize as real, at the very moment.
Why is humility such a powerful catalyst?
This is because humility does not acknowledge judgment or blame. Humility is a doorway to a guilt-free realm of mind where you are free to see things as a perfect lesson or incident allowing you to see the real picture.
When you look, there is often a veil or veils over actions, spoken words, or incidents. that are only seen through the colors of guilt and judgment.
In a humble state you are able to see through the veils to the naked truth. A series of events, words and incidents become clear.
THE VEILS OF JUDGMENT
The same action can be right or wrong in different parts of the world. A young woman may be killed for falling in love with someone unacceptable in the eyes of a religious leader. In other parts of the world that is called murder.
When the incidents are clear from cultural judgments, it is easier to assess the incidents without clouding the situation. This returns freedom of choice to the individual or to the community.
As difficult as it seems to see things without judgment, it gets easier with practice. For example, everyone is afraid of criticism. When you can hear the same words spoken with and without the implication of criticism, words that sounded threatening as criticism, when first heard, can become constructive guidance or simply information conveyed out of interest.
taking things personally Another aspect of judgment is when you take the information and point it out to yourself, inferring blame as if it were implicit in the statement. Many misunderstandings can occur this way. Some people are so afraid of criticism that they can ‘see it coming’ and dodge it before it happens.
Another common mistake is to interpret a scowl on someone’s face as meaning that person doesn’t like you, although a scowl can be caused by something as simple as a stone in your shoe.
That is like judging yourself and is called taking things personally, or shame (inward directed guilt).
When it is no longer a personal matter. The whole world becomes clearer and lighter. Then we can be free to adjust the balance, fix the repair, and overwrite old experiences from the past by creating new ones.
Since non-judgment (humility) and Gratitude are inseparable, that creates the attitude of gratitude.