Samani Shukla Pragya
Samani Vinay Pragya
Express Your Gratitude
In everyone’s life, there will be rain and shine. If people could be grateful for all they get, life would be much simpler, happier and productive.
What is Gratitude?
It is a response of your heart, a feeling of being blessed, thankful and grateful. It is a feeling of appreciation. Saying “I am thankful" is one of the most powerful statements we can make. Practicing Gratitude is the workout for our soul. It fosters our spiritual inner being, a positive attitude, a feeling of compassion for all, and an awareness of self-restraint. Of course it's easy to feel thankful when things go smoothly. But faced with daily challenges, and in the midst of whatever adversity we experience, we can become overwhelmed, depressed, and find it impossible to feel grateful.
Repeated awareness for gratitude shifts our minds towards the blessings that we have It facilitates our practice of moderation in every aspect of our life. It also enables us to not dwell on how someone has done us wrong or how life has apparently brought painful days with adversities. If you can condition yourself to look at the brighter side of life, it will only get brighter - especially when things don’t go your way!
"You will not feel less, if you know how to live with less"
Consider a simple fact: the overwhelming number of people in the world suffers a great deal on a daily basis. Poverty is a reality for about one half of the world’s population and approximately one person in six is in extreme poverty, or lives on less than $1 (U.S.) per day. Many people suffer from disease while many others are the victims of political persecution or terrorism.
Think about your life in this moment. Perhaps you could fill endless pages with glowing words of appreciation. The List of gratefulness will go beyond limits
- I am thankful to have one more brighter day to live.
- I am thankful for my life.
- I am thankful that I have shelter (home), Food and clothes to live happy life.
- I am blessed for having healthy body, healthy senses, healthy mind, and healthy brain.
- I am blessed that l have both my parents.
- I am blessed that I have all the comforts to lead easy life.
- I am thankful for my Family.
- I am thankful for my trustworthy friends.
- I am thankful for my spirituality.
- And so on...............
Although you may not have all of these things, you most likely have a great many. If you think about your blessings on a daily basis, you will see a marked change in your attitude about life!
A constant feeling of gratitude for the one, who helped you, is the greatest attitude you possess.
- Acharya Tulsi
Are You Grateful?
- Grateful people are happier, less depressed, less stressed, and more satisfied with their lives and social relationships.
- Grateful people also have higher levels of control of their environments, personal growth, purpose in life, and self-acceptance.
- Grateful people have more positive ways of coping with the difficulties they experience in life, and spend more time planning how to deal with the problem.
- Grateful people sleep better, and this seems to be because they do not think negative thoughts before they go to sleep.
"We often take for granted the very things that “most deserve our gratitude."
-Cynthia Ozick
What do you take for granted in your life? Look around you! There are a lot things or people that have become so familiar, we do not notice or appreciate them any longer.
For instance, children take their parents for granted and don't realize that their parents sacrifice so much to help, to create a bright future for their children. Married people often do not appreciate each other. Husbands expect that wives will take care of them, their children, the house, etc. Wives expect, that husbands will work hard to provide. We should have gratitude when our spouses do the caring things that they do! We should show gratitude and respect to those who provide services to us: our maids, servants, lift men, or anyone who works for us.
As you sit in your relaxing office chair, think with gratitude about those who have put their time and effort into designing, perfecting, assembling, and delivering this chair to you with the single objective - that you will be comfortable. Ahhhh… It helps you feel good and lets you close your eyes and lay back in it for a few minutes!
Opportunities for Gratitude are all around us!
If you start listing the things which you have taken for granted, you will realize the value of even very small things. But the true cause of stress, depression, misery and negative outlook is not having gratitude even though you have everything you need for a simple but fulfilling and happy life. So never underestimate small things or a very little help. Small things may assist you to big achievements. Thus take the initiative to render gratitude every single day to everyone whom you encounter.
“Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.”- Brian Tracy
Gratitude Interventions Project By Dr. Robert Emmons
Dr. Robert Emmons, professor at the University of California, is known for his research with the interface of personality psychology and the psychology of emotion and religion. What he found was very interesting as it clearly demonstrates how positive thinking and the attitude of gratitude can help us become happier and more balanced. In a remarkable study performed by Dr. Emmons, people who kept a gratitude journal for just 3 weeks measured 25% higher on life satisfaction after wards.
Happiness: In his research he found that those who kept gratitude journals felt better about their lives, exercised more and were more optimistic about the week ahead. The other group who kept their journaling to negative events didn't show these positive results at all.
Goal setting: When it came to setting goals, the gratitude group was making great progress toward important goals (health, academic, Inter-personal) within a period of two months. On the other hand, those who didn't practice daily gratitude failed to make progress.
State of mind: More enthusiasm, higher levels of awareness, more competition of tasks, positive energy and other benefits were the result of these daily exercises. The other group was practicing downward social comparison and focused on problems and negativity. Their results didn't show positive increases.
More helpful: There was also a notable increase in helpfulness toward others by those who kept their gratitude journals.
Better health: In a test with adults who had neuromuscular disease, Emmons did a 21-day gratitude intervention. This resulted in greater amounts of high energy positive moods and a greater sense of feeling connected with others. Individuals were also more optimistic about their life and slept better at night.
Everyday Gratefulness
Gratitude, Beauty, and the Art of Appreciation
Mista Whitson is a Watercolor artist in Weaverville, NC. Her appreciation for life unfolds in the detail and vibrancy of her exquisite paintings. Here is the secret of her constant happiness in her own words.
”One of the Ways I have learned to really use gratitude in my life was to start a gratitude journal. At night, before I go to bed I write five things I am thankful for. It could be things I am thankful for that I have experienced in that day, like a great cup of coffee or a wonderful talk with a friend. Or it could be something I am just thankful for in general, like my house, my health, my family.
I also write one thing l am thankful for about myself, for example, I am thankful for my legs that helped me walk today or maybe something simple like, I am thankful for my smile today. The last thing I write in my journal is the happiest moment of my day.
By writing down what I am ' thankful for each night I realize how rich my life is. Even if I am worried about something, when I look at my thankful list my worries seem to fade. By ending my journal with "The Happiest Moment” of my day it helps me to really focus in on what is bringing me happiness I in each day so I can create more of those moments in my life. I have been doing this practice for about three years now and it's true... gratitude can change your life!"
- Mista Whitson
Being grateful is a great formula, that can bring unexpected success in your life - Acharya Tulsi
“Samayam goyam maa pamaayaye"
O Goutam! Don’t waste even a single moment of life. -Uttaradhyayan, 10/1
In Jain scripture Uttaradhyayan, in his preaching Lord Mahavir inspires his chief disciple Goutam swami - “O Goutam! We see many souls have acquired precious human life in this world, but some of them do not possess all the senses. Some people have all healthy senses, but do not know the purpose of living. Even knowing the truth of life some prejudiced folks do not come out of their false conceptions. Some people have faith in spirituality, yet do not practice in their daily life.
But Goutam! You are blessed with all positive aspects of life. Realize the fact and act accordingly. Do not waste any single moment of your life to reach higher awareness and to enlighten yourself.
By teaching Goutam Swami, Lord Mahavir encourages all of us to count our blessings, move forward and achieve success in life.
Gratitude is a feeling of joy for being blessed with goodness.
In Buddhism, the Tibetan tradition also reveals the similar fact:
Starting from the good fortune of “precious human birth," the teaching moves from describing the eight other ways one could have been born, to listing ten necessary aspects: being born human, in a region of the world where the Buddha's teachings are accessible, with intact sensory organs, without false views, with natural trust in the dharma, in times when a buddha has appeared, in times when a buddha has given teachings, when those teachings have been preserved and are accessible, with the ability to grasp and practice the teachings, and so on.
Thus feel yourself blessed and move on to the path of spirituality.