Saying thanks with a smile!
“Slow down and smell the roses”, they say. We lead very busy lives in today’s society that we often don’t have time to slow down and smell the roses, let alone take an entire moment to acknowledge someone’s presence. Most of the time, the thanks we utter is often cursory; as a trained mechanical response or even as an afterthought to an action. It is what we have been told by our parents to say, and yes, say it we do. Yet, in our daily acts of thanking people, how often have we done it consciously and actively. How often have we taken a moment off of our attention to honestly thank someone from the bottom of our hearts? Truly, talking about gratitude can never be repeated enough times.
It heals our hearts
Gratitude is an amazing thing that is also humbly rooted to life at the same time. When we choose to say thanks and show appreciation for something or someone other than ourselves, we are making a conscious decision to shift our attention away from our self-absorbed, negative feelings, to openness and hopefulness. In that small act of mindfulness, we are telling ourselves that the sad, angry or painful things we’re feeling in life are not important anymore. Our struggles and suffering are real and that it is okay to feel that way. It is also okay to let them go. Through this conscious act, we are both the one acknowledging our own suffering as well as the ones taking it away; becoming both the witness and the one being witnessed. It is a beautiful gift that we can give ourselves that is both as wonderful as it is empowering.
An open heart makes space for joy
As we practise gratitude in our daily lives, hugging our pain and releasing the heaviness that weighs us down, we finally begin to make more space for the joyful things in life. The mere act of releasing the pain requires an opening of the heart anyway. How else would the pain leave? This opening is both the point of outflow of pain as well the inflow of joy. The opening of the heart is a truly expansive feeling that has often been described as feeling “full”, overflowing and bursting. Through the phrase “overflowing with love” or “bursting in joy”, we can perhaps begin to imagine that feeling that a grateful heart can bring. It can rejuvenate us in ways that no amount of food, money or success can buy. Perhaps one simple moment of joyous experience may revive us emotionally in ways that no amount of shopping can do. If so, then imagine what regular, daily moments of such joyous feelings can revitalise and restore us to? Surely those are better feelings than the pain and suffering we carry around us everyday?
We develop meaningful connections
An open heart never fails to touch another human being. When we are in a state of allowance and openness, we greet people without shields, armour or walls. There is a sense of free flowing energy that is both comfortable and liberating. People around us feel at ease and may begin to respond the same way; developing a connection that would otherwise have never happened. There is also a sense of lightness when we don’t have to carry the weight of a shield, giving us more energy to spend on forming meaningful connections with people. As we gradually build deeper and more meaningful connections, we become a part of a stronger support network of people who can help carry us through difficult times, enabling us to create even more meaning within our lives. As they say, no man is an island.
It connects us to something larger than ourselves
Gratitude by definition is giving thanks to something other than ourselves. It is an acknowledgement of our external environment. When we show appreciation for something external to ourselves, we are cultivating a sense of humility by recognising that there is something larger than us. It puts our existence into perspective; we are but one tiny spark in an entire Universe of stars. When we think about it this way, how can our problems weigh the same heaviness anymore? Through our willing surrender, we also let go of our innate arrogance; liberating us from our self-importance that chains us down. For this same reason, travelling is good for one’s soul.
Gratitude is such an amazing space to be in that one can only wonder why so few people actively engage in it. It is perhaps the fundamental, sole, most way to engage with life. It brings such liberating shifts in mindset and heart spaces. It also re-energises us in ways that no amount of money, success, fame and fortune can do. The best part of all is, it is completely free! Indeed the best things in life are free.
Will you make the conscious shift today?