Gratitude – MY Way Of Life!

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I dedicate this blog post to to all young people, who feel, there is nothing in life for them to live for, and nobody loves them and so there is nothing to be grateful for in life.

 I write this from my own experiences of meeting them, wherein they come in for counseling, as they are unable to deal with negative thought patterns.

I help them with restructuring their thought processes, by exploring their thoughts and teaching them to replace them with positive ones, and also provide and encourage them with affirmations for daily living.  

Along with this process, I also teach them to nurture gratitude, and many a times the students  do not know what to be grateful for, as they have conditioned their minds only to look at all those things that are not available for them in life.

One of the important things I make them do is to ask them to take a few deep breaths, and get them to do some deep breathing, then I make them focus on their breath, make them count and slowly shift their awareness to every part of the body that is functioning perfectly and teach them to say thanks for the Breath of life. That’s the beginning of their journey for learning the art of cultivating gratitude; beginning from breath/self and help them expand to other areas of life.

I have learnt to value every BREATH I TAKE,   and feel overwhelmed with gratitude to believe that I have been Breathing without any problem for more than half a century of my life. I don’t have any particular incident or a specific experience to trace when I began to be thankful.

Courtesy :free images from Google

As it has evolved over a period of time, wherein I learnt as a child in the early childhood days, to be thankful to God everyday as we said the family prayers together. My dad was very particular about saying thanks, and later on in school, my teachers taught me to say the golden words to say “sorry when we make a mistake, thank you when we receive something and please when we want something”

I found it made a lot of difference in my interactions, as I practiced these golden words, in all my relationships. One thing which I hung on is saying “Thank you” which became my focus, and I made sure to thank every time for everything. Gradually saying thanks also became part of my prayer, now it is just an auto response in myself, even before I bring the word to my mouth, my heart is already singing thanks and it happens when we constantly practice saying thanks every day for every small thing in our lives.

It not only keeps us happy, but also fills us with a lot of positive energy, making us persons who are productive in all aspects of life.  Gratitude shifts our focus on all the blessings that we have, helps us in valuing persons in our lives, so that we do not take them for granted.

courtesy: images from Google

An attitude of gratitude blocks us from negative thinking, which is like a disease, once we get it spreads making us unhappy, makes us compare our lives with others, saps our energy from within, keeps us from moving ahead, does not allow us to take responsibility.  On the other hand being grateful fills us with joy and bringing in love, laughter, cheerfulness and generosity to give back to the society, all that we have received freely in our lives.

My blog is also an expression of gratitude for all that I have received from generous souls in this life, and it is an attempt to remain in a state of gratitude and also live a life of gratitude.

I survived only with gratitude, the loss of my parents, a major accident that left my husband bed ridden, and the saddest part of my life has been the loss of my only son. I wept bitterly, grieved for long time, but never gave up because of the ONE BIG FACT IN MY LIFE i.e., Being GRATEFUL in every situation and specifically practicing gratitude for being ALIVE AND BREATHING.  

So each time I am disturbed or upset I sit in a relaxed position and take a few deep breaths – to remind myself that I am alive and breathing.

I am eternally grateful for my parents, who taught me to pray, and trust in God at all times, my brothers and sisters who shared their love and concern, my teachers who taught me by example, all the guruji’s, who taught me to meditate and  focus on my breath, my son who suffered respiratory problems, taught me to value by breath, my husband who gives me space to breathe and be myself, my daughter who brings in joy and happiness and all my  friends who are my support and inspiration.

Be Happy& Be Grateful!