Gratitude

It was a privilege to have lived. (Quoted in Travels with Epicurus)

What a wonderful life I've had!

I only wish I'd realized it sooner. (Colette)

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If the only prayer you say in your life is “Thank you,”

that will suffice. (Meister Eckhart)

Gratitude is the single most important ingredient

to living a successful and fulfilled life. (Jack Canfield)

Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart. (Seneca)

Gratitude bestows reverence,

changing forever how we experience life and the world. (John Milton)

The miracle of gratitude is that it shifts your perception to such an extent

that it changes the world you see. (Dr. Robert Holden)

Gratitude for the abundance you have received is the best insurance

that the abundance will continue. (Muhammad)

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Take full account of the excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude

remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not. (Marcus Aurelius)

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is

to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. (Marcus Aurelius)

The grateful heart sits at a continuous feast. (Proverbs 15:15)

Whatever you appreciate and give thanks for will increase in your life. (Sanaya Roman)

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When you practice gratefulness,

there is a sense of respect towards others. (The Dalai Lama)

A person however learned and qualified in his life’s work

in whom gratitude is absent, is devoid of that beauty of character

which makes personality fragrant. (Hazrat Inayat Khan)

The unthankful heart discovers no mercies;

but the thankful heart will find, in every hour,

some heavenly blessings. (Henry Ward Beecher)

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue,

but the parent of all other virtues. (Cicero)

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At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person.

Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those

who have lighted the flame within us. (Albert Schweitzer)

Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy;

they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. (Marcel Proust)

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts

are conscious of our treasures. (Thornton Wilder)

Let us adore God with thanksgiving

for words of gratitude are the only offering God accepts. (Hermes)

Love of God is pure when joy and suffering

inspire an equal degree of gratitude. (Simone Weil)

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Because gratitude is the key to happiness, anything that undermines gratitude

must undermine happiness. And nothing undermines gratitude as much as

expectations. There is an inverse relationship between expectations

and gratitude: The more expectations you have,

the less gratitude you will have. (Dennis Prager)

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many;

not on your misfortunes, of which all men have some. (Charles Dickens)

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you,

and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed

to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

The worship most acceptable to God

comes from a thankful and cheerful heart. (Plutarch)

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Gratitude - for each new morning with its light,

for rest and shelter of the night,

for health and food, for love and friends,

for everything Thy goodness sends. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. (Maya Angelou)

The person who has stopped being thankful has fallen asleep in life. (Robert Louis Stevenson)

Get on your knees and thank God you’re on your feet. (Irish proverb)

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Do you know who the luckiest people on earth are? To my way of thinking,

they are those who have developed an almost constant sense of gratitude.

The luckiest people are those who are grateful for their work and grateful that

they can do their work and do it well. They are grateful for their children and

their wives and husbands. They never take them for granted; never permit them

to lose their love, interest, and charm. They are grateful for their lives,

their health, their friends, and their opportunities.

And they have about them an aura of good cheer and well-being. (Earl Nightingale)

To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us -

and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love,

every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from

Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive,

is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God.

For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by

experience. And that is what makes all the difference. (Thomas Merton)

The greatest saint in the world is not he who prays most or fasts most;

it is not he who gives alms, or is most eminent for temperance,

chastity or justice. It is he who is most thankful to God. (William Law)

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Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today,

at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little,

at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick,

at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful. (Buddha)

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not,

but rejoices for those which he has. (Epictetus)

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the

future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with

what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing.

The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach.

A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be,

without wishing for what he has not. (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

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Ingratitude is the soul’s enemy…Like a hot, parching wind, it dries up the well-

spring of holiness, the dew of mercy, and the streams of grace. (Saint Bernard)

There is a legend of a man who found the barn where Satan kept his seeds ready

to be sown in the human heart, and on finding the seeds of discouragement more

numerous than others, learned that those seeds could be made to grow almost

anywhere. When Satan was questioned he reluctantly admitted that there

was one place in which he could never get them to thrive.

“And where is that?” asked the man. Satan replied sadly,

“In the heart of a grateful man.”

When we are grateful for the good we already have, we attract more good into

our life. On the other hand, when we are ungrateful, we tend to shut ourselves

off from the good we might otherwise experience. (Margaret Stortz)

The more I understand the mind and the human experience, the more I begin to

suspect there is no such thing as unhappiness; there is only ungratefulness. (Steve Maraboli)

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Prayer and gratitude grant inner peace and harmony to withstand the hazards

of physical life, which is a passing phase of the soul in its long journey

back to the True Home of the Father. (Sant Kirpal Singh)

When you are grateful, your mind is at rest; you feel satisfied. (Sant Kirpal Singh)

Man’s only duty is to be ever grateful to God

for His innumerable gifts and blessings. (Sant Kirpal Singh)

Gratitude is a tonic for the heart. (Sant Kirpal Singh)

Sant Kirpal Singh

Ingratitude is the greatest evil. What has God given us? All that we need and

much more. Have we ever offered a thanksgiving prayer for what He has done

and the bounteous gifts supplied by Him? If we fulfill these conditions of

truthfulness and contentment with a sense of gratefulness, He would not deny us

anything for which we may happen to wish. (Sant Kirpal Singh)

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The most important and most significant good quality in our human life is

gratitude. Unfortunately, that good quality we somehow manage not to express

either in our thoughts or in our actions. Right from the beginning of our life,

we have somehow learned not to express it. So we have the least amount

of the very thing that we need most in order to become

a better person. (Sri Chinmoy)

Gratitude is the sweetest thing in a seeker's life - in all human life.

If there is gratitude in your heart, then there will be tremendous sweetness

in your eyes. (Sri Chinmoy)

If you have true gratitude, it will express itself automatically. It will be visible

in your eyes, around your being, in your aura. It is like the fragrance of a

flower. In most cases if there is a beautiful flower, the fragrance will be there

naturally. The flower and its fragrance cannot be separated. (Sri Chinmoy)

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If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap,

whence every one must take an equal portion,

most persons would be contented to take their own and depart. (Socrates)

I have resolved this year to be thankful for the things that haven’t happened.

I’m thankful for the accidents I wasn’t involved in, the illnesses that never

developed, and the times I could have been mugged, but wasn’t.

I’m thankful my house didn’t burn down when I left the iron on for five hours.

I’m thankful that when we left the garage door up all night, nothing was taken.

Sometimes I forget to be thankful for electricity, plumbing and anesthetics.

Ever since my daughter nearly sheared her fingertip in the bathroom door,

I’m grateful for every uneventful day. (Unknown)

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more.

If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough. (Oprah Winfrey)

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Blessings are oftentimes not valued till they are gone. (Thomas Fuller)

We are by nature astonishingly heedless and incapable of gratitude.

We can spend a whole lifetime enjoying various benefits and not appreciate their

value until we are deprived of them. How many lovers boldly contemplate

separation, fondly imagining that they have had enough of the beloved?

And yet as soon as they actually experience separation,

they burn up with longing. (Jami)

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also

in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance. (Kahlil Gibran)

When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted

or take them with gratitude. (G.K. Chesterton)

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The problem that we have with a victim mentality is that we forget to see

the blessings of the day. Because of this, our spirit is poisoned

instead of nourished. (Steve Maraboli)

I hate ingratitude more in man than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness,

or any taint of voice, whose strong corruption inhabits our frail blood. (Shakespeare)

Just an observation: it is impossible to be both grateful and depressed.

Those with a grateful mindset tend to see the message in the mess.

And even though life may knock them down, the grateful find reasons,

if even small ones, to get up. (Steve Maraboli)

O Thou who has given us so much,

mercifully grant us one more thing – a grateful heart. (George Herbert)

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Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough,

and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into

clarity. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into

perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense

of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. (Melody Beattie)

Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present;

fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead. (C.S. Lewis)

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life

is the foundation for all abundance. (Eckhart Tolle)

Sofyan cried out in Rabia’s presence, “O God! that You might be content with

me!” Rabia reproached him, saying, “Aren’t you ashamed to ask God to be

content with you when you are not content with God?”

To this Sofyan exclaimed, “God forgive me!”

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Gratitude is an emotion expressing appreciation for what one has—as opposed

to, say, a consumer-oriented emphasis on what one wants or needs—and is

currently receiving a great deal of attention as a facet of positive psychology.

Gratitude is what gets poured into the glass to make it half full. Studies show

that gratitude not only can be deliberately cultivated but can increase levels of

well-being and happiness among those who do cultivate it. In addition, grateful

thinking—and especially expression of it to others—is associated with increased

levels of energy, optimism, and empathy.

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it

is like wrapping a present and not giving it. (William Arthur Ward)

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Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what

you now have was once among the things you only hoped for. (Epicurus)

Experiencing and expressing gratitude is an important part of any spiritual

practice. It opens the heart and activates positive emotion centers in the brain.

Regular practice of gratitude can change the way our brain neurons fire into

more positive automatic patterns. The positive emotions we evoke can soothe

distress and broaden our thinking patterns so we develop a larger and more

expansive view of our lives. Gratitude is an emotion of connectedness, which

reminds us we are part of a larger universe with all living things. (psychologytoday.com/blog/the-mindful-self-express/201111/the-seven-best-gratitude-quotes)

The more you express outwardly your gratitude and thankfulness for what

you have, the more you change your molecular vibration

away from the dense energy into finer levels. (Sanaya Roman)

In old Anglo-Saxon, to be “thankful” meant to be “thinkful.”

Thinking of one’s blessings should stir one to gratitude.

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One day on the street of London Charles Spurgeon was robbed.

When he arrived home and told his tale, he said,

“Well, thank the Lord anyway.”

His wife countered, “Thank the Lord that somebody stole your money?”

“No, my dear,” answered her husband.

Then he began to enumerate some reasons why he was thankful.

“First, I’m thankful the robber just took my money, not my life.

Secondly, I’m thankful I had left most of our money home and he didn’t really

rob me of much. Thirdly, I’m thankful to God

that I was not the robber.”

If anyone would tell you the shortest, surest way to happiness and all perfection,

he must tell you to make it a rule to yourself to thank and praise God for

everything that happens to you. For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity

happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it,

you turn it into a blessing. (William Law)

I thank God for my handicaps, for through them,

I have found myself, my work and my God. (Helen Keller)

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Scottish minister Alexander Whyte was known for his uplifting prayers in the

pulpit. He always found something for which to be grateful. One Sunday

morning the weather was so gloomy that one church member thought to himself,

“Certainly the preacher won’t think of anything for which to thank God on a

wretched day like this.” Much to his surprise, however, Whyte began

by praying, “We thank Thee, O God, that it is not always like this.”

Jafar asked Rabia when a devotee might become content with God.

She replied, “When his joy in affliction equals his joy in blessing.”

Gratitude is the creative force, the mother and father of love. It is in gratitude

that real love exists. Love expands only when gratitude is there. Limited love

does not offer gratitude. Limited love is immediately bound by something- by

constant desires or constant demands. But when it is unlimited love, constant

love, then gratitude comes to the fore. This love becomes all gratitude. (Sri Chinmoy)

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All we have is all we need.

All we need is the awareness of how blessed we really are. (Sarah Ban Breathnach)

She decided that the next time she felt her brain fill with worry and fear she

would say, “No thank you. Today I want to be filled with gratitude for what

I have and love for my family and friends.” It was a simple request

and she had the power to grant it. (Queenisms)

Gratitude is a mark of a noble soul and a refined character.

We like to be around those who are grateful. They tend to brighten

all around them. They make others feel better about themselves.

They tend to be more humble, more joyful, more likeable. (Joseph Wirthlin)

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I declare I am grateful for who God is in my life and for what He’s done.

I will not take for granted the people, the opportunities, and the favor He has

blessed me with. I will look at what is right and not what is wrong. I will thank

him for what I have and not complain about what I don’t have. I will see each

day as a gift from God. My heart will overflow with praise and gratitude

for all of His goodness. This is my declaration. (Unknown)

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Make a Gratitude Adjustment Feeling thankful is one key to happiness, so count your blessings for a boost.

(Lauren Aaronson)

Gratitude is a sentiment we'd all do well to cultivate, according to positive psychologists,

mental health clinicians and researchers who seek to help everyone create more joy in life.

Feeling thankful and expressing that thanks makes you happier and heartier.

Gratitude needn't be directed at another person to hit its mark. Take just a few minutes each

day to jot down things that make you thankful, from the generosity of friends to the food on

your table or the right to vote. After a few weeks, people who follow this routine "feel better

about themselves, have more energy and feel more alert," Emmons says. Feeling thankful

even brings physical changes, studies show. List-keepers sleep better, exercise more and gain

a general contentment that may counteract stress and contribute to overall health.

A conscious focus on gratitude may also remind you of unassuming pluses that get lost in the

ups and downs of a busy life. "The most important blessings are the ones that are most

consistent," such as family, health and home, says Philip Watkins, an Eastern Washington

University psychologist. "And those are the ones we take for granted." Grateful reflection

helps you pick out and savor the good in life, even if the good isn't flashy.

Gratitude turns your attention to what you do have instead of what you don't. Consistently

ungrateful people tend to think that material goods, such as a big-screen TV, or winning the

lottery will make them happy. On the other hand, people who recognize the blessings they

have tend to think they'll get happiness from things like fulfilling relationships—which,

research shows, are the real sources of satisfaction. Because grateful people don't fixate on

money or material goods, they may cut back on envy and nagging comparisons with the

Joneses.

Gratitude may chase away thoughts far worse than a desire for a big-screen TV. Traumatic

memories fade into the background for people who regularly feel grateful. Troublesome

thoughts pop up less frequently and with less intensity, which suggests that gratitude may

enhance emotional healing. Thankfulness helps the brain fully process events. Grateful people

achieve closure by making sense of negative events so that they mesh with a generally

positive outlook.

Even a simple "thank you" spurs people to act in compassionate ways they might not

otherwise consider. People thanked for giving directions help more willingly in the future,

social workers who get thank-you letters visit their clients more often, and diners whose

waiters write "thanks" on the check give bigger tips.

Call it corny, but gratitude just may be the glue that holds society together.

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Reframing

Have you ever noticed that two people can face the same situation and one person can

describe the situation as a harrowing ordeal while another sees it as a minor inconvenience?

Or have you had one of those days when it seems that everything is going wrong--until you

hear someone else's troubles that make yours pale in comparison, showing you that your

stressors really aren't so bad?

Have you faced a challenge in your life that initially seemed like a negative event, but that

eventually brought gifts and gains that cause you to look back on the event as positive? These

situations all involve a phenomenon that psychologists refer to as 'reframing'.

What Is Reframing?

Reframing is a way of changing the way you look at something and, thus, changing your

experience of it. Reframing can turn a stressful event into either a major trauma or a challenge

to be bravely overcome. Reframing can depict a really bad day as a mildly low point in an

overall wonderful life. Reframing can see a negative event as a learning experience.

Reframing is a way that we can alter our perceptions of stressors and, thus, relieve significant

amounts of stress and create a more positive life before actually making any changes in our

circumstances.

How Does Reframing Affect Stress?

Using reframing techniques can actually change your physical responses to stress because

your body's stress response is triggered by perceived stress, not actual events. If you perceive

that you are threatened--physically or psychologically--by a situation, your fight-or-flight

response will kick in. Your stress response can be triggered by events ranging from annoying

to frightening,

and can remain triggered long after the triggering event has passed, especially if you're not

practicing relaxation techniques. Reframing techniques are a way of minimizing the stressors

you perceive in your life, thus easing the process of relaxation.

How Does Reframing Work?

Using reframing techniques can be simple and easy, especially with practice.

Notice Your Thoughts. The first step is to catch yourself when you're slipping into overly

negative and stress-inducing patterns of thinking. Being aware of them is an important part of

challenging and ultimately changing them. One thing you can do is just become more mindful

of your thoughts, as though you're an observer. When you catch negative thinking styles, just

note them at first. If you want, you can even keep a journal and start recording what's

happening in your life and your thoughts surrounding these events, and then examine these

thoughts through your new 'lens' to get more practice in catching these thoughts. Another

helpful practice is meditation, where you learn to quiet your mind and examine your thoughts.

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Once you become more of an observer, it's easier to notice your thoughts rather than

remaining caught up in them.

Challenge Your Thoughts. As you notice your negative thoughts, an effective part of

reframing involves examining the truth and accuracy (or lack thereof) of these thoughts. Are

the things you're telling yourself even true? Also, what are some other ways to interpret the

same set of events? Which ways of seeing things serve you better? Instead of seeing things

the way you always have, challenge every negative thought, and see if you can adopt thoughts

that fit your situation but reflect a more positive outlook.

Replace Your Thoughts With More Positive Thoughts Have you even been to a hospital

and noticed that the nurses often ask people about their 'discomfort' rather than their 'pain'?

That's reframing in action. If the patient is in searing pain, the term 'discomfort' becomes

annoying and seems to reflect a disconnect in understanding, but if the pain is mild, reframing

it as 'discomfort' can actually minimize the experience of pain for many patients. This is a

useful reframing trick that we can all put into practice.

When you're looking at something negative, see if you can change your self talk to use less

strong, less negative emotions. When you're looking at a potentially stressful situation, see if

you can view it as a challenge vs. a threat. Look for the

'gift' in each situation, and see if you can see your stressors on the more positive edge of

reality: see them in a way that still fits the facts of your situation, but that is less negative and

more optimistic and positive.

That's the gist of reframing, and you can do it as often as you'd like. Most people are surprised

at what a big impact reframing can have on their experience of stress--changing the way you

look at your life can truly change your life! (http://stress.about.com/od/positiveattitude/a/reframing.htm)

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Why Living a Life of Gratitude Can Make You Happy Post written by Leo Babauto

Many days, I try to humble myself and hold a 2-minute gratitude session. I simply sit or kneel,

with no distractions, close my eyes, and think about what I’m grateful for and who I’m

grateful for.

I don’t do it every day, but let me tell you, on the days I do it, it makes me very happy.

Why should that be? Why should the simple act of thinking about who and what I’m grateful

for make such a big difference in my life?

Just a few reasons:

Because it reminds you of the positive things in your life. It makes you happy about the

people in your life, whether they’re loved ones or just a stranger you met who was kind to you

in some ways.

Because it turns bad things into good things. Having problems at work? Be grateful you

have work. Be grateful you have challenges, and that life isn’t boring. Be grateful that you can

learn from these challenges. Be thankful they make you a stronger person.

Because it reminds you of what’s important. It’s hard to complain about the little things

when you give thanks that your children are alive and healthy. It’s hard to get stressed out

over paying bills when you are grateful there is a roof over your head.

Because it reminds you to thank others. I’ll talk about this more below, but the simple act

of saying “thank you” to someone can make a big difference in that person’s life. Calling

them, emailing them, stopping by to say thank you … just taking that minute out of your life

to tell them why you are grateful toward them is important to them. People like being

appreciated for who they are and what they do. It costs you little, but makes someone else

happy. And making someone else happy will make you happy.

What do I give thanks for, privately, in my little gratitude session? It varies every day. I

thank all the readers of this site, for the encouragement you have given me, for the donations

you’ve made that have made me that much closer to realizing my dreams, for the criticism

you’ve given that has made this site better … for the time you’ve given me, just reading the

articles when you have the chance.

I thank my loved ones, for all they do to me. I thank strangers who’ve shown me little acts of

kindness. I thank God, for the life he’s given me. I thank people around the world for the

things they’ve done to make the world better. I thank myself, for things that I’ve done (it’s

important to recognize your own accomplishments).

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How to Live a Life of Gratitude The thing is, simple acts of gratitude don’t cost you much (especially once you get over the

initial discomfort some people feel with thanking others). But they can make a huge

difference.

If you’re interested in living a life of gratitude, here are my suggestions:

Morning gratitude session. Take 2-3 minutes each morning to give thanks, to whoever or

whatever you’re grateful for. You don’t have to do anything, other than close your eyes and

silently give thanks. This one act can make a huge difference.

Say thank you. When someone does something nice for you, however small, try to remember

to say thank you. And really mean it.

Call to say thanks. Sometimes you might think about something nice that someone did for

you. Perhaps you remember during your gratitude session. When you do, pick up the phone

and call the person, just to say thanks. Let them know what they did that you’re grateful for,

and why you appreciate it. Takes a minute or two. If it’s too early to call, make a note to call

later. Even better is telling them in person, if you happen to see them or if they’re on your

route. Almost as good is a thank-you email — keep it short and sweet.

Give thanks for “negative” things in your life. There’s always two ways to look at

something. Many times we think of something as negative — it’s stressful, harmful, sad,

unfortunate, difficult. But that same thing can be looked at in a more positive way. Giving

thanks for those things is a great way to remind yourself that there is good in just about

everything. Problems can be seen as opportunities to grow, to be creative. See the prayer

below for more on this. (http://zenhabits.net/why-living-a-life-of-gratitude-can-make-you-happy/)

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A Lesson in Gratitude

There was a learned man who, for eight years, desired that God would show him a man who

would teach him about gratitude. Once when he felt a great longing, a voice from God came

to him and said, "Go to the church, and there you will find a man who will show you the way

to blessedness." The man went to the church and found a poor man whose feet were torn and

covered with dust and dirt, and all his clothes were hardly worth three cents. The man greeted

the poor man saying – "God give you good day!"

He answered: "I have never had a bad day."

"God give you good luck."

"I have never had bad luck."

"May you be happy."

"I have never been unhappy."

"Why do you answer me the way you do? Please explain this to me, for I cannot understand

it."

The poor man answered willingly. "You wished me good day, I never had a bad day; for if I

am hungry I praise God; if it freezes, hails, snows, if the weather is fair or foul, still I praise

God; am I wretched and despised? I praise God, and so I have never had a bad day. You

wished that God would send me luck. But I never had bad luck for I know how to live with

God, and I know that what He does is best; and what God gives me, whether it is good or bad,

I take it cheerfully from God as the best that can be, and so I have never had bad luck. You

wished that God would make me happy. I am never unhappy; for my only desire is to live in

God's will, and I have so entirely surrendered my will to God, that what God wills, I will."

Giving thanks for abundance

is greater than the abundance itself. (Rumi)

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May your soul be happy;

journey joyfully. (Rumi)

Kirpalct@yahoo.com

For more booklets go to: kirpalsingh.org