Perception is the key component of gratitude. Gratitude is the key component to joy.
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Wealth and Gratitude
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” ~ Epictetus
When we think of wealth and financial independence, the word and thoughts that usually come to mind is more…more money and financial assets, more big boy toys and larger estate homes. But according to most Stoics or philosophers, their insight is that once your essential needs are satisfied, the easiest way to create wealth and achieve financial independence is to want less.
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” ~ Epictetus
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Secret to a Long and Happy Life
On CNBC’s Make It, 107-year-old Shirley Hodes shares her secret to a long and happy life: Don’t wait for your dreams to come true.
Shirley Hodes, who celebrated her 107th birthday earlier this month in North Carolina, says, “Not everyone has their dreams come true.” If you want to be happy in life, especially as you age, “you must look at other things besides dreams.”
That philosophy means reorienting yourself towards finding joy in small things, in what you can control, and in wanting what you already have. It is about being grateful.
“You must be content with who you are and what you can expect of yourself. Find things that are satisfying,” Hodes says.
Cultivating this kind of happiness mindset requires effort. But the work can pay off: Positivity is linked to a longer and healthier life.
Here are top tips for staying happy as you get older.
- Think of yourself as fortunate and blessed. Be thankful for all the things and people currently in your life.
- Believe that tomorrow will be better than today.
- Focus less on what others have and more on the aspects of life you can feel grateful for. Don’t get swept up in jealousy or resentment,
- Find delight daily in the small things. I listened to books on tape, took walks, watched old movies on TV, and had a scoop of ice cream after dinner. Most importantly, family and friends.
Source: 107-year-old shares her secret to a long and happy life: Don’t wait for your dreams to come true https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/21/107-year-old-shares-her-secrets-to-happiness-as-you-age.html
The Story of Oprah Winfrey
“Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey’s career has been almost impossibly successful. Oprah’s net worth of $2.6 billion also makes her the first African American female billionaire.
Defying the odds is nothing new to Oprah, who has been battling against adversity her whole life. Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey.
Oprah Winfrey grew up in extreme poverty and was sexually abused by several people throughout her childhood. She bounced between living with her mother, father, and grandmother, and as a teenager, she frequently ran away from home. She became pregnant at age fourteen, but the infant died shortly after birth.
During her high school years, she began working at a local radio station. She worked her way through several media jobs, and eventually, she landed a job as a TV news anchor. But she was later fired from the position.
She didn’t allow one person’s opinion of her on-air suitability to stop her, however. She went on to create her own talk show and by the age of thirty-two, her show became a national hit. By the age of forty-one, she had a reported net worth of over $340 million.
Oprah has started her own magazine, radio show, and TV network and has coauthored five books. She’s even won an Academy Award. She’s started a multitude of charities to help people in need, including a leadership academy for girls in South Africa.
Oprah didn’t let her childhood or her former employer take away her power. A woman who was once teased because she was so poor, she wore potato sacks as dresses was named one of the world’s most powerful women by both CNN and Time. Statistically, her upbringing would have predicted a poor prognosis. But Oprah refused to be a statistic. She chose to define who she was going to be in life by not giving away her power.
Oprah’s story shows how important education, faith, and hard work are. She is a true believer that working towards your goals will take all your effort, but it will be worth it.
“Whatever someone did to you in the past has no power over the present. Only you give it power.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
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World Gratitude Day
Today is World Gratitude Day
World Gratitude Day is observed annually on September 21. to mark the importance of appreciating people and expressing gratitude.
World Gratitude Day is a reminder of the importance of expressing gratitude by thanking people and appreciating the things you have. It is a day aimed at realizing the importance of showing appreciation and gratitude for the people around us.
Gratitude promotes happiness by giving people more positive emotions and making them savor good experiences. Gratitude helps people savor good moments, appreciate life, deal more effectively with bad experiences, improve their health, and build more rewarding relationships.
A regular gratitude practice can make you healthier and lead to…
👉 Better mood
👉 Better sleep
👉 Lower blood pressure
👉 Improved immune function
Never regret a day in your life.
- Good days bring happiness,
- Bad days give experiences,
- The worst days give lessons, and the best days give memories.
- Every day is a unique chapter in your story, filled with valuable moments that shape your journey.
- Cherish them all, for they contribute to the beautiful tapestry of your life.
Gratitude is Powerful
Gratitude is powerful: not only does it feel good, it’s also been proven to increase your mental and physical well-being in myriad ways.
Gratitude is a powerful mindset that does far more than make you feel good; it can help you be your best self both mentally and physically, connect with others, and see the good in others and the world.
- Gratitude turns what little you have into abundance.
- Gratitude is so much more than saying thank you.
- Gratitude changes your perspective of your world.
Think of your mind like your digestive system — what you put into it impacts how you feel and think. When you flood your mind with a constant flow of worry, envy, resentment, and self-criticism (compounded by a barrage of news and social media) it negatively impacts your mental well-being.
Practicing gratitude is like exercise and a healthy diet for your mind. Researchers have shown that it can positively impact your mental and physical well-being
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Gratitude is important
“You can’t feel envious and grateful at the same time. They’re incompatible feelings, because if you’re grateful, you can’t resent someone for owning things you don’t.” ~ Dr. Robert Emmons
Gratitude is important because when you express gratitude, your brain releases dopamine and serotonin — two hormones that make you feel lighter and happier inside.
Have you ever noticed that when you are looking to buy a new phone or a jacket all of a sudden everyone around you has it? That’s because, consciously or unconsciously, whatever we are focused on is what we see. If we want to trigger gratitude in ourselves, we need to intentionally shift our focus to that which we are grateful for.
You experience gratitude when you shift your focus from what you don’t have to what you do, and when you take time to appreciate and be thankful for those who have contributed to the abundance in your life.
Nearly a decade of research by Dr. Robert Emmons — the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude — and others has found that people who have regular gratitude practices are healthier, happier, and have better relationships.
Further research suggests that gratitude is also key in helping individuals and teams persevere in challenging tasks.
Soutce: https://hbr.org/2020/10/use-gratitude-to-counter-stress-and-uncertainty
Gratitude: A Super Power
“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
There are many definitions of gratitude, but experiencing gratitude at its fundamental level requires a conscious effort. It’s about expressing and saying ‘thank you’ while actually feeling thankful.
Gratitude is a conscious, positive emotion one can express when feeling thankful for something or someone, whether tangible or intangible. It’s about acknowledging and being consciously thankful for the many large and small blessings life brings everyday
Gratitude requires acknowledging someone else’s gesture towards us or the things that are going well in our lives. It involves both a process of recognition of the positive and its outcome.
Research suggest that people who consciously count their blessings tend to be happier and less depressed. Notably, it’s impossible to feel grateful and stressed at the same time, writes Dr. Jason N. Linder, Psy.D., LMFT, a licensed bilingual (Spanish-speaking) therapist specializing in relationship, trauma, addiction-related, and mindfulness therapies. “This is a basic principle in psychology called “Reciprocal Inhibition”; we can’t feel two contradicting states at once. And the best part about gratitude is that it’s easy to access in little time,” he explains.
Moreover, research has found that gratitude changes our brains and those who practice gratitude tend to have more brain activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, the area associated with learning and decision making.
Gratitude can overpower negative emotions. It boosts positive emotions like joy and compassion while encouraging us to look for and connect with what’s pleasing and good in life.
In general, gratitude is a simple tool we all have at our disposal to improve our own psychological well-being and that of others.
Five ways to practice gratitude
Like any skill, gratitude can be learned and strengthened. Here are some tips on how to practice gratitude.
- Each day, think of three things you’re thankful for. Make it a daily habit to visualize what’s good in your life.
- Start a gratitude journal. Journaling can be an excellent self-therapy technique. When you write, you use different parts of your brain and access memories and emotions from a new perspective. A gratitude journal has been proven to activate brain areas that are related to morality and positive emotions.
- Thank someone new every week.There are many people around us, and we are all connected somehow. You must take the time to express gratitude more consciously or thoughtfully. Give yourself the purpose of choosing someone new each week and learn how to express gratitude differently.
- Be mindful. When it comes to gratitude, mindfulnesses allow us to focus on the good and to be present in the moment. We can also take the moment to imagine a specific situation we are grateful for and let the feeling grow and be stronger. Mindfulness practices emphasizing gratitude can help us stay in touch with all we have to be grateful for.
- Focus more on others’ intentions.When you receive a gift or a gracious gesture from someone, consider how they intended to bring good into your life. Take a moment to visualize their wiliness to help you, make you feel happy, or be there for you in a challenging moment.
To have people who care about you and that you care for; to have your health, even partially; and, to have interests and the ability to pursue them, even sporadically; are reasons to be fortunate, blessed and grateful. ~ Dr. Jason N. Linder, Psy.D., LMFT
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Gratitude 101
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance” — Eckhart Tolle
Gratitude is being thankful for what you receive in life. Not just tangible ‘things’ but also feelings, experiences, interactions, anything at all, from big, life-changing things, through to the smallest and most subtle, like awakening each morning.
Thus, the first step to expressing gratitude is to fully understand what it means and it’s definition. Robert Emmons, a professor at UC Davis and leading expert in gratitude has a comprehensive, two-part definition of gratitude:
- Gratitude is an affirmation of goodness. By expressing gratitude, we acknowledge that there are good things in the world and that we’ve received its gifts and benefits. It’s important to note that gratitude doesn’t ignore the bad things and hassles of life, but rather encourages us to identify some amount of goodness in our life.
- Gratitude involves figuring out where that goodness comes from. Expressing gratitude often reveals that many sources of goodness are outside of ourselves. We can still be proud of our traits and what we accomplish, but Dr. Emmons believes that true gratitude involves a humble dependence on others. By this he means that we acknowledge that other people’or even higher powers, if you’re of a spiritual mindset’help us achieve the goodness in our lives.
Expressing gratitude may seem like a light and fluffy practice, but it has significant and measurable benefits. In one study executed by Dr. Emmons, two groups of people were asked to keep a weekly journal. One group filled it with expressions of gratitude. The other wrote about the stressors or neutral events of their lives. The results: those who kept a gratitude journal exercised more regularly, had fewer physical ailments, and felt better and more optimistic about their lives.
The benefits of gratitude are:
Wellbeing – Gratitude has been shown to improve optimism, happiness, alertness and attentiveness, enthusiasm, progress towards goals, and energy levels. It has also been associated with fewer depressive symptoms, reduced stress, being more patient and thus, making better long-term decisions.
Relationships – Gratitude has also been linked with better prosocial interactions. Basically, it’s great for all your relationships.
Health – Gratitude has also been linked to better overall physical health, and specifically improved sleep, increased exercise, and reduced blood pressure.
“When you go deeply into the present, gratitude arises spontaneously, even if it’s just gratitude for breathing, gratitude for the aliveness that you feel in your body. Gratitude is there when you acknowledge the aliveness of the present moment.” — Eckhart Tolle
Gratitude research has found:
- Daily discussions of gratitude results in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, energy and sleep duration and quality.
- Gratitude is a relationship-strengthening emotion because it requires us to see how we support and affirmation from others.
- People who rank higher on gratitude scales are less likely to retaliate against others and experience more sensitivity and empathy towards other people.
- Writing in a gratitude journal improves sleep.
- Gratitude reduces social comparisons and increases self-esteem.
There is significant evidence on positive benefits of gratitude – health, wellbeing, and relationships — and the benefits are shown over time,
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Be Grateful Always
“The best way to show your gratitude to God and people is to accept everything with joy….We may not be able to give much but we can always give the joy that springs from a heart that is in love with God. All over the world people are hungry and thirsty for God’s love. We meet that hunger by spreading joy. Joy is one of the best safeguards against temptation.” ~ Mother Teresa
Simply put, gratitude is both a mindset and a habit. It’s a way of looking at the world and all the good things in it with a feeling of appreciation, regardless of whether or not your current situation is to your liking.
Gratitude is a heart-centered approach to being at peace with yourself and with all you have. When you practice this feeling of gratitude, it attracts even MORE things into your life for which to be grateful.
Mother Teresa is credited with saying, “Gratitude to God is to accept everything, even my problems, with joy.” In short, be grateful and joyful always, in both the good times and bad times
Gratitude makes us humble and elevates us to a higher way of living at the same time, writes Jack Canfield. In all of the stages, ebbs, and flows of our lives, we can be grateful for the life we are living.
We’re either living our best life or preparing to.
To increase your gratitude and attract more abundance to your life, focus on being grateful always.
The best way to activate your gratitude is by acknowledging the gifts most people take for granted, explains Canfield. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes in your closet and a roof over your head, you are better off than 75 percent of the world’s population.
If you eat three meals a day, you are far better off than the 1 billion people on the planet who eat once a day at most.
Do you have a phone? How about a car that allows you to travel to work or to explore the country? Is your family healthy? Do you have a computer and Internet access to stay in touch with the world, get access to education, and perform work for which you are paid? Do you have clean water to drink?
Celebrate these simple blessings. These daily conveniences are gifts that most people across the world do not enjoy.
a short story about gratitude.
A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which read, “I am blind, please help.”
There were only a few coins in the hat – spare change from folks as they hurried past.
A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. Then he put the sign back in the boy’s hand so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.
That afternoon, the man who had changed the sign returned to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”
The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.”
I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it.”
Both signs spoke the truth. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign conveyed to everyone walking by how grateful they should be to see…
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