Gratitude is one of those words I’ve never thought about until a few years ago when I started my mindfulness journey. Now, I realize that gratitude is the very next step after following, believing and living mindfulness over a long period of time. What is gratitude? It’s feeling full and grateful in this very moment, no matter what that moments currently is. This means that we don’t just feel lucky for what we have when something goes wrong, or when we are in a beautiful place, or receive a nice gift, it’s that we feel thankful even when the moments are great, good, boring, or unmemorable.
When you are mindful, and living in this very moment, the smallest of things give you feelings of gratitude. I compare it to being peaceful. When you are peaceful, you feel gracious toward all the things in your life. So how do we practice being grateful? Well, we first need to practice mindfulness, and we will slowly but very surely realize that the quality of being thankful for each moment, happening, silence, pause in our lives will begin to flourish.
For thoughts on being mindful, please read these…
Staying Mindful at the End of the Summer
Raising a Baby Abroad and Being Mindful
Photo by Rebecca Hansen from First Mate Photo
