What are the benefits of feeling and showing gratitude at some point in each day of your life? Well I can think of a few benefits right off the bat. The one idea that comes to mind immediately is, showing gratitude can be extremely selfless. Let me explain what I mean here. The act of showing self-gratitude and appreciation can feel self-centered at first. This idea is activated because you are focusing typically on yourself and not another. However every perceived idea is a two sided coin and this includes how we think about gratitude. The presumed selfishness of being grateful for what you have at present can reach out as positive energy to others. Therefore, remembering to be grateful for personal accomplishments can open doors to include others in this enjoyment. Self-gratitude allows amazing opportunities to project onto the world directly around you, positive uplifting energies. This occurs even through the unspoken word; therefore you do not have to verbalize anything. The positive energy provided through self gratitude is automatically projected during life's interactions.
In a world where negative self-perception comes by the buckets-full, well focused feelings of gratitude can change everything. Yes, there is a hint of selfishness in feeling thankful for what we have acquired in life. This is because feeling admiration about possessions, accomplishments, or love for one's self is primarily a personal experience. Lifelong negative conditioning dictates that we include a sense of guilt about our achievements. Despite feeling of guilt, if you exercise self-gratitude, sharing positive energy with others becomes increasingly effortless.
What about when life experience doesn't feel so good and negativity appears in the world around you? When everything seems to be falling apart in your life, is it likelihood to be grateful? How is it possible to appreciate anything when it looks as if the world is falling apart right in front of your eyes? The answer is, be grateful for what you have any way! There is always an upside and a downside in life situations. Negative conditioning gives us the tendency is to gravitate toward the pessimistic side of life.
Even though we tell ourselves "look on the bright side" it's very difficult to believe there is a "bright side" deep down. Most of the time people do not believe themselves when things are going right let alone if the perception of life is horrible. Our inner conversation is so screwed up we don't know who side to take, the positive or the negative. Therefore we find ourselves in the state of mind that is set in a falsified limbo. When something good happens in your life we say "I don't believe it". Why shouldn't you believe that something good has happened to you? Then we start looking for the bad things to happen right around the corner. The reason we don't believe when something good happens in our life is because it very seldom happens from our tainted perspective. So in other words we can see things we perceive as large gifts which occur in our life.
We can appreciate these perceived large gifts a great deal, but only for short period of time. Once the gratefulness flame has extinguished what do we do? We return back to focusing on what we see as problems in our life. With this mindset it's impossible to stay in a state of gratitude. If you cannot stay in a state of gratitude you cannot appreciate enough in your life to build bigger things that you will be grateful for in the future. How do you convince a negatively conditioned mind to be grateful all the time? Exercise your mind in gratefulness and you will become a person who is grateful about the large things and the small things in your life. We cannot be grateful every second of our life but we should try. Life is a gift! When you get this exercise down pack you will appreciate the smaller things in life much more than the formally perceived large things. When you get the exercise of gratefulness working properly in your life the butterfly in nature is bigger than any monetary riches.
It's true; you will appreciate seeing the butterfly out in nature and it will have a greater effect on your internal spirit than receiving $100,000. Unless, you spent that $100,000 would buy a trip to see 100,000 butterflies. Don't get me wrong here; receiving money under the right circumstances can lift your internal spirit and happiness gauge a great deal. But there's a different understanding on the plane of gratitude in which you will be standing when you learn to appreciate the butterfly in nature more. Once you have exercised gratefulness, be sure to appreciate and be grateful for the knowledge that you have been negatively conditioned. Every time you pay attention to the fact you've been negatively conditioned allows you an opportunity to reverse the process. It gives you the opportunity to examine who you are truly, inside and out. The recognition of negative conditioning need not be focused on for extended periods; as it will not be necessary, and hinders thoughts of gratitude.
We should all be grateful for any opportunity which affords us enlightenment about the person we really are rather than the person we've been trained to think we are. Act on every opportunity that comes along which allows you to be grateful in the service of others. Tell yourself each and every day that life is wonderful and fulfilling. Take action every day in the gratefulness of being alive. Make a list of everything you love, appreciate and are grateful for about yourself and be truthful about this list. How Will You Be Grateful Today?