When we are entrenched in a rut in life, it seems like the most difficult time to find or
feel gratitude. But there’s a strong possibility that the loss or lack of gratitude is going to
be very relevant to the depth and length of the rut we’re in.
Thinking about the things that people may or may not feel grateful for creates a wide
and varying scale in the mind. Everyone’s gratitude triggers are different. Some may not
really get the true feeling of gratitude until they land that dream job or narrowly escape a
car collision or get a second chance at something they’ve failed.
Others may feel a deep sense of gratitude that they were able to even get up out of bed,
that they are able to sit in the sun and sip their coffee or have a meal to eat on a given
day.
This is why negative situations or events can bring about such positive changes for people
because the situation or event has got them in touch with the feeling of gratitude somewhere
in that process, when they made it through a tough time or someone helped them for example.
Sometimes we may feel that gratitude is something we own and have power to give or
not give. Part of that is true. We choose when we allow gratitude to flow from us but it is
just there, free and accessible to us all.
Gratitude is what bridges the gap for those with nothing to give allowing all to be givers.
Being shown gratitude can often change our day much more profoundly than any
material item we could receive.
Gratitude is an infectious state of being. It is easy to pay forward and start a chain reaction
That can go on and on.
We don’t earn a pile of gratitude or work for a supply of it that we can stockpile or use up.
There is an endless supply of it available to everyone to use as freely as they wish. We
never have to run out. In fact the less we use it, the more difficult it is to find it and get it
flowing.
One could say that we set the bar as to how easily it is to activate the faucet of gratitude.
that is available to flow In our lives.
Close your eyes now and bring your mind to the time you remember feeling the most
grateful you have ever felt in your life…take a deep breath and linger on that feeling for a
few minutes without thinking of anything else. Try to really feel it again.
Doesn’t that exercise make it clear that the biggest beneficiary of that grateful state is actually
the person feeling it?
Gratitude is the nullifier of many negative feelings that are impossible to have while in a grateful
state so the more we intentionally let it flow, the more we shift our minds away from negative
thinking and build stamina.
I know that for those in a rut it can be difficult to get in touch with that feeling at times.
Gratitude requires exercise and is one of the necessary bricks in the foundation of a joyous
life that unfortunately endures heavy erosion during the process of slipping into a rut.
Even if we are having a difficult time finding new things to be grateful for, we can rely on past
memories to exercise and sensitize our gratitude meter. We should bring ourselves to those
past times when we felt gratitude every day until we begin to notice an increase of ease and flow
of our gratitude faucet.
People who are full of gratitude have a wonderful vibe and personality that solicits others to
behave differently toward them than they might toward someone who is miserable and
unsatisfied with life.
As a person in a rut, we want to change those things that may instigate negative, self-
fulfilling prophecies.
Gratitude is very individual. One could be a minimalist and be so very grateful that they
have nothing in their home and another be grateful that every corner of their home is
filled with possessions.
We should never let others dictate when and for what reasons we feel gratitude.
What I mean by this; we are all in our own journey. Some may have lots of money or a big
family, a nice car. We may have no money, no family, no car. Everyone’s journey is their own,
they are apples and oranges and cannot be compared for the determination of when gratitude
is warranted.
You may also be interested in these posts about Avoiding Daily Stress, Taking Back Your Power, Letting Go to Make Room For Joy, Clutter Problems and Becoming Productive Again.