Thankfulness. Gratitude

Gratitude is an attitude in life. It is more than just saying “Thanks”. It is when you mean it. You choose to be thankful; it often doesn’t come out naturally. You decide to be thankful. You decide to recognize somebody.

Instead of reminding yourself all the things you don’t have, or you could have, you focus in enjoying what you already have. You may not like everything about your job, but you have a job. Right? You may have some discomfort, but you’re alive, you can enjoy life.

The contrary of being thankful is thinking that you deserve everything you have. 

Instead of being happy to be healthy, you could say: I am supposed to be healthy”. Or you got a degree and you say: “So what. It´s just because I studied” Or you got a new car and you think: “it is just because I paid for it!”. Being thankful is not automatic. You decide if you are going to be thankful. 

At work if somebody helps you out with something, instead of saying “Thanks”, you could just think: “that’s your job”, “you are supposed to help me out”, “that’s the reason you are here working”. But there are so many things that we do at our job without obligation, we do just out of appreciation to the other person, or compassion or just for the pleasure of helping somebody, or because we see ourselves as a team. To encourage these little gestures of cooperation we can just say:  “Thanks”.

If somebody helps you to pick up something that fell to the floor, It feels nice to be helped. Doesn’t it? And then you say: “Thank you”. Your gratitude brings a smile to the other person. This little thing brings a drop of joy to your life. It boosts your energy level, it pushes you forward, and you feel happy to be alive. Being thankful is very powerful. That’s why people say that to be happy is a choice. And one part of it is to decide to be thankful. 

I have a friend in Mozambique, Africa. Domingo is an old man. He is very poor. But he is an example of happiness for me. With my wife we asked ourselves: What’s the secret of this person´s happiness? And we discover it: It is because he doesn’t think he deserves anything he has. Everything he gets is like a gift for him and he is so thankful for it. Don’t take anything for granted. That’s one of the secrets of happiness.

You can be thankful to God: For being alive, for having a job, for having a family, or friends, or for your senses (being able to see for example).

Gratitude produces happiness. It brings joy to your life. Being thankful is more than just saying “Thanks”. But saying it, is great!

Daniel Martin