Thanksgiving

Gratitude As A Daily Practice

With the arrival of Thanksgiving here in the US, it felt fitting to write an essay about gratitude. This is a commonly discussed subject in spiritual and secular circles alike — and that’s for good reason.

To be gracious and to give thanks for the things that we have has an undeniably positive effect on one’s attitude. The simplest explanation for this is that gratitude as a practice teaches us to take our attention off of everything that we don’t have and put it onto everything that we do.

From a conscious creation perspective, this switch in attention has a tremendous impact on a person’s internal state of knowing. By training yourself to be more gracious, you begin to spend more and more time in a state of knowing fulfillment, abundance, and happiness. That will have an impact on your ability to manifest anything because it’s a way of eliminating the tendency to live life predominantly in a state of lack — which, as we know, is a major barrier to creation.

This is why gratitude-focused exercises are so effective for people. You can very easily start a gratitude journal where you list a few things you’re grateful for every day. By doing so, you’ll be reminding yourself to enter into a state of fulfillment at minimum once per day. What you’ll probably find, though, is that practicing gratitude has a spillover effect; even if it only takes a few minutes to write down some things you’re grateful for every morning, this practice will set the tone for your entire day — it’ll make you more likely to remain in or re-enter that state of fulfillment as the day progresses.

I think gratitude as a practice can go beyond this, too.

Imagine for a second that everything you have — your material possessions, your loved ones, your experiences, and even your body and mind — didn’t belong to you. Instead of thinking you own your possessions and your experiences, think of them as things you’ve borrowed temporarily. And who have you borrowed them from? From Life itself.

When you cease feeling as if the objects, experiences, and people you love are your belongings, and instead, you think of them as things loaned to you by Life, it becomes incredibly easy to feel thankful. How incredible is it that Life has gifted you an opportunity to know and love the people you do? To experience the joy of fun experiences (or really, of any experiences at all)? How kind is Life for having been willing to share everything of itself with you? And this sharing is totally selfless — you have nothing to offer Life itself in return for its kindness; everything of yours belongs to Life and was offered freely to you by Life, with no expectation of receiving anything in return.

When you approach the world from this point of view, see what becomes of loss.

One can only “lose” something that they feel belongs to them. When you see that everything you have belongs to Life, the very idea of loss is annihilated. Things you once believed to be great losses suddenly become seen clearly for what they really are: Life taking back one of the many things it’s so freely and lovingly decided to share with you. It’s not even a “taking back” because Life doesn’t take; it only gives. Things return themselves to Life. Just like after a long night spent having fun and celebrating with friends, you long to return home, everything eventually longs to return to its “home” in Life.

When things withdraw from you and return to where they came from, you don’t have to feel as if you lost anything. You can be truly and genuinely thankful. Wow — how incredible is it that Life shared that experience with me? Life shared with me the opportunity to know and love that person — it didn’t have to, but it did because Life loves me and wants to share itself with me. How lucky am I?

And there’s one more piece of the puzzle that this perspective will reveal to you: the role of faith.

Life is tireless in its sharing. Every second of every day, it gives more of itself to you. Everything you’ve ever enjoyed, you had the opportunity to enjoy because Life gifted you that opportunity. Why, then, when things go “wrong,” even for a second, do we lose our faith in Life’s ability to provide for us? When all of what’s “ours” has been given to us by Life, why do we fear that Life has suddenly become inept and incapable of continuing to share itself with us? It should occur to you that even if you don’t know what Life is doing, Life knows what it’s doing.

So the person you loved left you for someone else, and now you’re worried you’ll never love again. Why??? Have you forgotten that Life shared with you the opportunity to love that person in the first place? You were given a gift; now, that gift has run its course. But this doesn’t mean more gifts aren’t on the way. While you’re cursing Life for taking away something that you think belonged to you, it’s continuing to share itself and is probably preparing to share an even greater opportunity for love with you. Because that’s what Life does; it gives, and it gives, and it gives.

If you’d only get out of Life’s way — if you’d stop fighting to control Life — then Life could give to you so much more freely.

And, even if Life suddenly decided to stop sharing good things with you (it won’t because that’s not in its nature, especially when you stop fighting it), could you really complain?

If I walked up to you on the street and offered you a free month-long stay at a luxurious tropical resort, could you get mad at me when the month was over and it was time to go home? Would you curse me for having given you an incredible gift, totally out of my own selflessness, just because eventually the gift came to an end? Or would you thank me — “Wow, he didn’t have to do that for me. He didn’t get anything in return for his kindness, and I got to enjoy an incredible experience.”

That’s what we do to Life all the time, though. We enjoy a great thing, that thing comes to an end for one reason or another, then we get angry at Life — “How dare you, Life. How dare you share with me such a beautiful gift and then make it not last forever.” Or, we see others experiencing great things, and we act as if Life is against us. “Screw you, Life. How dare you share such a great thing with her and not with me. Though you’ve given me everything I love purely out of your own kindness, I curse you for not having given me what you gave someone else. I’m entitled to more free gifts from you.”

Now, this perspective is easier discussed than it is lived. It’s not easy to remain grateful in the face of negative experiences. But, even if only for today, try to spend some time thanking Life for all it shares with you. It doesn’t have to share anything good with any of us — but it does because it loves us.

When you start to see Life as your loving benefactor — as a force whose sole purpose is to give you things freely — it’s much easier to let go of feelings of lack and of loss. You can get out of Life’s way. You can stop fighting it and start having faith in it. And, when you’re able to do that, life will be able to give more and more freely to you. Then you can spend all your time thanking Life for the opportunity to share in Life.

As always, good luck.