What is the emotion you feel in your heart when you wake up in the mornings? When you answer this question, make sure to exempt the mood changes that occur seldom and your physical ailments.
You should encounter each morning with gratitude in your heart. Because, you have got another day as a gift to live. You have woken up to another morning… to sip a cup of coffee, to send a WhatsApp message to a friend, to hug your life partner and to receive kisses from your kids. Isn’t it an important thing that you have woken up healthy to see another day?
Thousands of people died yesterday around the world. These deaths have occurred by different reasons like road accidents, assaults, sickness and natural calamities. Today also many people will die. It will continue tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. A study states that, when the last page of a year’s calendar is turned, 55. 3 million people would have breathed their last in this world.
By the time this article is finished, more than ten people would have died in various parts of the world. It is a blessing that you are alive to read this article. You need to be grateful for being alive. You need to thank this day and your life. Researchers opine that having a thankful disposition and a mind filled with gratitude will add to the goodness of life.
Robert Emmons, a researcher, says that gratitude is a decision we take towards goodness. Being grateful will result in our own goodness. He conducted a study, dividing a group into three. The finding of the study was this: To the first group, he asked to thank for five good experiences they had in the last week. To the second group, he asked to write down five disappointing things that happened last week. He asked the third group to write down about the mixed experiences, both positive and negative, that occurred during the previous week.
He continued this training for ten weeks. Incredible change occurred in the members of the first group who kept thanking for their experiences. They looked forward to the future with hope. They became persons of positive attitude. They had less physical illness, comparatively. Depression left them. They had high self-esteem and they began to grow in love and compassion. But, the experience of the members of the second group was pathetic. Because they had no chance to express gratitude.
Most people wait to thank for good things to happen in life. But, we cannot say that those who were in the first group had only good experiences. Actually, they were thankful to every experience they had in their lives. They thanked the rain, the hot sun and chill of the night. Open your eyes to see the beauty of every event of life. As I wrote in the beginning, be grateful for every little experience of life you had from the moment you woke up in the morning till you go to sleep at night. Only then you will be able to perceive the beauty of life. It is not enough to express gratitude when great things happen in life.
For instance, you get caught up in a traffic jam on your way to the office for an urgent meeting. Naturally, you will get annoyed and desperate. You might feel hatred towards the people in the vehicles in front of you. Nevertheless, we can be grateful in such situations also, says a researcher named Harris. When you are in the midst of such a situation, think about those hapless people running for their life through deserts to escape the atrocities of the war – about the fleeing refugees who have lost their homes and homeland. If we are able to reflect on them, we will impulsively thank the Lord for being fortunate enough to sit in the air-conditioned vehicle and listen to music.
Those mothers, who get irritated when their babies wake up and cry in the dead of the night should think about the women in the world who do not have a baby at all. Likewise, those fathers, who get annoyed with their kid’s pranks and laughter while they work, should think about those men who are unable to procreate a child of his own. Then, we will become thankful persons. When you get up from the dining table finding fault with the dish your wife has prepared, think about those who have nothing to eat. Wives, who complain about the tasks in the kitchen should think about those kitchens, where there is nothing to cook. Then, they will be able to say thanks.
In the book ‘Thanks a Thousand,’ A J Jacobs says that we must wonder at and thank for even the smallest things of life. When you drink coffee in the morning, think about the coffee garden where it grew, about the person who plucked it and ground it to coffee dust. Indeed a thing to marvel at! How can we not be thankful for it!
Similarly, there are many wonders in this world like electric transmission, speaking over the phone, the waves that create moving pictures on the television and so on… although there are scientific reasons behind them, when we meditate over them, we can’t help wondering at them!
Is it not a wonder that I can see and talk on my smartphone with my friend who is in the United States or Japan from the confines of my room? Shouldn’t we be thankful for these wonderful things? So, Harris urges us again: Give thanks for all experiences of life. Once we begin to be grateful, we will begin to lead a good life.
Give thanks for being fortunate to read this article, for being able to read it and understand it. I too thank the Lord for being able to complete writing this article. Never forget: A grateful life is a life of goodness. It opens the door to a good life.
So, be thankful to everyone and everybody. Thank you!
