Expressing Peace. Gratitude. 67.
Gratitude journal
Let’s not confuse gratitude with ‘thank you’. That was Expressing Peace #57. This is the gratitude that happens every day, involves you and another, and wants to be expressed.
Gratitude is the quality of “being warmly or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received; thankful”. And that requires someone or something else.
I’m taking as given that gratitude is good: a good experience to have, a good emotion to feel, and a good situation to be in. With that in mind, I suggest the good has 2 parts: good that we feel gratitude and good that we express it.
I suggest that 10% of the good is feeling and 90% of the good is expressing gratitude. I could be wrong; it might be 1% feeling and 99% expressing.
Remember a recent time when someone did something that made you happy or relieved or secure or refreshed or anything pleasant? Did you feel good when you felt gratitude? Perhaps you think you felt gratitude because you felt good. Possible and if so there was probably a second feel good because feeling gratitude makes you feel good.
Gratitude is proven to protect us from stress, anxiety, negativity, and depression. And if feeling gratitude does that, consider how much more expressing your gratitude can do. William Arthur Ward, author of Fountains of Faith, said: “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
You might think of keeping a Gratitude Journal. Invite yourself to jot down 3-5 occurrences each day for which you are grateful.
Share your gratitude. Whether you refer to your Gratitude Journal or not, build the commitment to thank someone sincerely every day for whatever they have provided you.
Be grateful to yourself. You perform actions, you say words, you experience thoughts and feelings that make you feel good. All your gratitude is not dependent on someone else or something else. Much of it starts with you. Expand that 10% feel good to 100% by expressing thanks to yourself.
What does this have to do with peace? It’s woven throughout gratitude. The peace from whoever or whatever lets you feel good. The peace from expressing that, i.e., giving someone the present you’ve already wrapped. The peace from knowing the connection with another.
And all that peace for sure points us to Peace.
Good Friend, GOD,
I love saying to another for helping me,
“Thank you!”
I love saying to the sun for rising,
“Thank you!”
I love saying to my legs for running,
my lungs for breathing,
my eyes for seeing,
“Thank you!”
I love knowing all this comes from you and saying,
“Thank you!”
My connection with this human life is such a special gift
it warrants thanks to everyone and everything and everytime
and everyplace over and again.
And thanks to you, Good Friend, for helping me stay mindful
that there cannot be too many “Thank you’s”.
And so it is.
Amen. Amen.
Enjoy Peace. Express Peace. Thank you!
In: Commitment, Happiness, Inner Peace, Peace, Prayer · Tagged with: Peace, Prayer, praying, spiritual simplicity
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