At our center, our divine intellective activity knows that the supreme value of our life rests in gratitude. The first actuality of our joy was to appreciate the senses. As a small baby, the comforting sight of my mother's warm breast at feeding time when I had no idea it was meant for nourishment. Barely able to walk, I screamed with laughter at the shore of the beach water splashing at my feet unaware water could pose a danger. The sound of my puppy anxiously anticipating the wet warm kisses of his love on my face never expecting dogs could bite. Running as fast as my small legs would carry me when my older siblings made it a game to try and catch me, not expecting to fall down and skin my knee. My older brother swinging me by my arms to that enchanting dizziness with no thought of becoming sick to my stomach. My mommy and daddy coming home from a night out, regardless of their level of intoxication, hearing them would mean hugs. Our first blessing, our soul, looks only to the good and knows the value for life itself regardless of the potential consequences of our choices.
As children, the aliveness, the core, the eternal occupant of our being did the very best to navigate us to a place of continued appreciation for life itself and to deliver us from fear. I recall the story of the small child standing at the crib of his newborn baby sister. His mother overhead him saying "tell me about God, I'm starting to forget". Shall it not be considered the same as gratitude. Tell me about the magical truth of gratitude for the simple things I feel at the center of my being. When do we begin to forget, this sense of truth, a truth that says there is good in all circumstances.
The knowingness at my center continually attempted to reform the negative impressions of life and living that society would continue to place in my path. Self improvement taught me to respect gratitude and to take my attention to it's healing benefits. Yet, all too often I fail to remember and the teaching begins again. What can be done to heal the teaching.
To be continued . . .
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Gratitude Equals Happiness
When we think of being happy, do we think of being grateful? Many of us do not, particularly those who are most unhappy. Rather, when we are feeling sadness, we ask ourselves what is there to be grateful for? I shall forever encourage gratefulness as the key ingredient that leads to a bounty of happiness that knows no limits.
In the "Highlights from the Research Project on Gratitude and Thankfulness", Michael E. McCullough opens his highlights with the statement "Gratitude is the 'forgotten factor" in happiness research". The day shall come when scientists in the study of human emotions shall come to the understanding of the "vortex" of gratitude in the midst of happiness.
We look beyond the soul to the outskirts of our existence expecting to be reinforced by the external world. We distance ourselves from our center, our soul, the only place where excellence and virtue are found. At the center of our soul, shall we not find the greatest amount of happiness being grateful for our mere existence?
Most small children are simply happy, simply grateful. Even those children that have suffered some abuse have no knowledge as to how to evaluate happiness. We will inherently embrace the joys of life without evaluating the best from the worse. We love our heroes, those who we can not imagine living without. We value simple things like the merry go round in the park, the pumpkins aglow during Halloween, riding a bicycle for the first time, the make it better kiss when we fall down and scratch ourselves. The value we place on these simple pleasures is our gratitude which inevitably leads to our happiness. We have yet to be taught to count our blessings, for those simple blessings are naturally bestowed. We need not stop to acknowledge gratitude for we have yet to learn how not to appreciate the value of small things. We do not let any life history, as short as it may be, diminish our happiness into sadness. We live naturally at the center of our lives, the vortex of life.
This childhood organic appreciation that we have for most everything begins to diminish early on. That joy turns to confusion as we are reminded to say thank you for every little thing that is extended to us. With each instruction in gratefulness, the confusion grows as does the distance we create from our center, the vortex where we were living in joy. We become robots to gratitude for our teaching is merely to utter words with no meaning. Lacking is the indispensable explanation of virtue and why gratitude will lead to health, wholeness and well-being.
Happiness at the center may evolve into sadness as we learn to focus on the exterior leaving the all consuming love we felt at the center. At the vortex of our being we felt united with a joy that required no explanation. On the exterior we may begin to feel isolated and confused leading to fear . That innermost sacred part of our initial existence fades into memory and eventually we are led to experience pain and unhappiness. We begin the life journey of of discontent with only glimpses of that organic appreciation of life's simple pleasures.
If we were taught to understand the value of gratitude, our ability to cope with the challenges in life may have been enabled Had we been encouraged to appreciate the personal and intellectual joy of this potential personality trait, we may have developed our character of strength. The attraction of the merry go round may have frightened us at first. Yet, we were blessed with a divine protection that gave us the fortitude to jump on board. As our heads begin to delightfully spin with each turn of the wheel, we rapidly lost our initial fear and were grateful for the ride. No reason to analyze the difference between the fear and the joy for the fear was lost and the joy was consistent. The gratitude was born as we felt alive at the core of our being.
To be continued . . .
In the "Highlights from the Research Project on Gratitude and Thankfulness", Michael E. McCullough opens his highlights with the statement "Gratitude is the 'forgotten factor" in happiness research". The day shall come when scientists in the study of human emotions shall come to the understanding of the "vortex" of gratitude in the midst of happiness.
We look beyond the soul to the outskirts of our existence expecting to be reinforced by the external world. We distance ourselves from our center, our soul, the only place where excellence and virtue are found. At the center of our soul, shall we not find the greatest amount of happiness being grateful for our mere existence?
Most small children are simply happy, simply grateful. Even those children that have suffered some abuse have no knowledge as to how to evaluate happiness. We will inherently embrace the joys of life without evaluating the best from the worse. We love our heroes, those who we can not imagine living without. We value simple things like the merry go round in the park, the pumpkins aglow during Halloween, riding a bicycle for the first time, the make it better kiss when we fall down and scratch ourselves. The value we place on these simple pleasures is our gratitude which inevitably leads to our happiness. We have yet to be taught to count our blessings, for those simple blessings are naturally bestowed. We need not stop to acknowledge gratitude for we have yet to learn how not to appreciate the value of small things. We do not let any life history, as short as it may be, diminish our happiness into sadness. We live naturally at the center of our lives, the vortex of life.
This childhood organic appreciation that we have for most everything begins to diminish early on. That joy turns to confusion as we are reminded to say thank you for every little thing that is extended to us. With each instruction in gratefulness, the confusion grows as does the distance we create from our center, the vortex where we were living in joy. We become robots to gratitude for our teaching is merely to utter words with no meaning. Lacking is the indispensable explanation of virtue and why gratitude will lead to health, wholeness and well-being.
Happiness at the center may evolve into sadness as we learn to focus on the exterior leaving the all consuming love we felt at the center. At the vortex of our being we felt united with a joy that required no explanation. On the exterior we may begin to feel isolated and confused leading to fear . That innermost sacred part of our initial existence fades into memory and eventually we are led to experience pain and unhappiness. We begin the life journey of of discontent with only glimpses of that organic appreciation of life's simple pleasures.
If we were taught to understand the value of gratitude, our ability to cope with the challenges in life may have been enabled Had we been encouraged to appreciate the personal and intellectual joy of this potential personality trait, we may have developed our character of strength. The attraction of the merry go round may have frightened us at first. Yet, we were blessed with a divine protection that gave us the fortitude to jump on board. As our heads begin to delightfully spin with each turn of the wheel, we rapidly lost our initial fear and were grateful for the ride. No reason to analyze the difference between the fear and the joy for the fear was lost and the joy was consistent. The gratitude was born as we felt alive at the core of our being.
To be continued . . .
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