Finding Your Way to Happiness Through Gratitide

Everybody knows how to enjoy a vacation. Particularly when we travel abroad, we open our eyes to see new sites and our taste buds are ready to savor new kinds of food. It is easy to appreciate everything when we take a break from our work and our familiar surroundings. But we all return home after vacations and that means returning to routine and our daily chores. In our day to day existence, we tend to take for granted what we already possess and we tend to appreciate only what is new (like birthday presents, surprises). It is not surprising that there are so few joyful moments in our lives. However, there is a way to change and to unlock our potential to find joy in each moment. – the way of gratitude. nnOnce upon a time there was a poor man who visited a rich friend and the two drank alcohol until the poor man fell asleep. The rich man had to leave early, but before he went, he sewed a precious jewel into the lining of the poor man's cloak. The poor man was totally unaware of his new wealth and wandered around as a beggar for years until one day he met the rich man again and only then did he discover the fortune he carried around with him. nnJust like this story, we all carry around with us hidden treasure and we need the key of gratitude to appreciate the value of our lives.nnFill a glass of water half-way and put it on a table in front of you. Consider the glass of water is it half-empty or half-full? To a person who has walked in the hot desert for hours without water, that glass of water is definitely half-full but to some people it is half-empty. Of course both are true; it's all a matter of perspective. The same is true about the way we view our lives. nnSome people live their lives in perpetual hunger. They can only see what is missing in their lives, and their lives are defined by the pursuit of the missing possessions, status, fame or fortune. Other people have learnt to value what they already have, and for them life itself becomes the greatest of all treasures. They have learnt the power of gratitude.nn“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."n~ Melody BeattiennThe Definition of Gratitude means a state of being grateful or thankful where we are appreciative of benefit received.nnExpressing GratitudenWe express our gratitude by thanking others in words and even more so by our acts. When we thank someone we empower them and ourselves. We recognize their value to us and create joy. How we feel about our past (contentment or bitterness) depends on our memories. The more we can find in life to feel grateful about the more we increase our life satisfaction. Gratitude is a catalyst which puts positive energy into our lives and increases our good memories about the past ; their intensity and frequency. When we start to feel grateful, we begin to notice how much joy we block by taking everything for granted. When we are too self-centered or feel victims, we can’t show or feel appreciation and cut ourselves off from other people.nnResearch by two psychologists Dr Emmons and McCullogh, shows that people who regularly kept a gratitude diary were more alert, energetic, optimistic, empathetic, and healthy and made greater progress in reaching their personal goals than people who kept an ordinary life event diary.nnHere are some examples of things we can feel grateful for :nn* Our parents who gave us the gift of lifen* Our families and friendsn* Our teachers and everybody who taught us the lessons of lifen* Our society, country and culturen* Nature and the beauty of our environmentn* Each day of life we can enjoy in good healthn* Our challenges or difficulties : overcoming them will enable us to grow as human beingsnnJohn F. Kennedy saidn“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” nnnBe Thankful (source unknown)nnBe thankful that you don't already have everything you desire,nIf you did, what would there be to look forward to? nnBe thankful when you don't know somethingnFor it gives you the opportunity to learn. nnBe thankful for the difficult times.nDuring those times you grow.