Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Gratitude Is The Best Attitude‏

Happy New Year everyone! The past two years were some kind of roller coaster years for me that I could barely focus on my blog. That being said, 2016 is a new year and I truly want to make the best out of it and of course encourage people to do the same. It's a blessing for me to be able to think positive and share it in writing, so let's get started.

The concept of gratitude was unknown to me about a few years ago. Now that I've learned what it is, I think it's such a valuable key for anyone who wants to achieve a happy life. Gratitude is more than its definition of a feeling of appreciation or thanks. It's a state of mind and a positive vibe to spread around. Life then rewards us back in unexpected ways at unexpected times. 

As human beings, our focus is usually on what we want because we know that life goes on and we must keep moving forward. Sometimes we get discouraged as we still have a long way to achieve what we want. In that instant, we need to pause and look back at what we have achieved and how far we have come. It's important to take that present time to reflect on the efforts we have put and the good feelings that the past achievements have given us. It's a little step that shows that we acknowledge the good that life has offered or offers us. When we are grateful for what we have, we realize that we are blessed with more than enough and this type of thought lets us achieve a peaceful mindset which then allows us to think about the efforts we need to put to achieve our next goals. Basically, gratitude is an attitude that makes us feel good inside, it's that simple.

Let me give you a small personal example. I was and am constantly torn between "If you do not go after what you want, you'll never have it" and "What's meant to be will be." Just a couple of months ago, I felt like life rewarded me for appreciating what I had. I was in my world, giving my best and one day, a little reward knocked on my door. At first, I could not believe that such a day would come because I considered myself just an average human being. It was a minor accomplishment and I reflected on the attitude I had just days and weeks before. That's when I realized that weeks before, I was genuine to myself and had said something along the following words to some people: "I got a lot [of happiness] in my share, I don't need more for now..." I think this attitude of mine just made life reward me later on somehow. For me, it was all the power of gratitude. At that time, I was so happy that my mission of positivity is not just a dream in my mind but rather life itself is helping me make the best of my journey.

There's a saying "Happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have." I probably first read that three years ago and did not know back then but now I know that's exactly what gratitude is. If we don't take the time to reflect on what we have, we will never know what we truly have, we'll take for granted what we have and we will always want more and that's not the right attitude. We should not wait to lose something or the privilege associated to it to understand its value. We need to learn to cherish the good things we have and we get no matter how small they are.

When I say that we have to be grateful for what we have, it also applies towards the dear ones we have in our lives. We all know that people come and go whenever they want and not everyone is meant to stay forever in our lives. This may seem difficult to do, I am still struggling sometimes, but it's important to let people know at times that they matter to us. When our dear ones are nice to us, we must have faith in the positive vibes that they send us. We need to trust ourselves and listen to our inner voice that makes us acknowledge that these people bring the good in us and help us to be good human beings. Similarly, we have the power to make them feel special. Complimenting others is some sort of gratitude too!

I did and I am still doing this exercise of writing down each good thing that happens to me in a line and by the end of year, I easily find about 100 good things that happened in my life over the year. This helps me realize how blessed I am and to shift away my attention from the negative thoughts. For those interested, I invite you to try to do the same. Gratitude is an attitude for you, not to impress anyone around. We have nothing to lose with this attitude. When we are genuinely grateful for what we have, life just gets better and surprises us when we least expect it. Keep the faith in gratitude and watch the small changes that will add up in your life! Make the most out of 2016!

1 comment:

  1. This is great Priya! We often forget to see what we already have and are unhappy, but once you're grateful, more keeps coming!

    ReplyDelete