On Gratitude - Day 16

Sometimes its hard to be thankful. Especially when tragedy happens, in the midst of frustration, or receiving bad news. Just the other day I listened to a Podcast by The Art Of Charm on Gratitude. It says that practicing gratitude is one of the fastest ways on being thankful.I took some notes while listening to the podcast:

Thanks comes from the old English tongue thunk, which means thought or gratitude. But its also Latin for the tongue to know. To thank is to know. To know someone is to know yourself, what they did for you, how it affected you.So when someone says to be thankful you may - in the present moment be angry, frustrated, or feel like WHY? However, if someone were to say to know what you can do  is take a moment to change your emotional state in that instance, or remember a kind thought that someone did for you. You may know of a lesson you picked up in a tough conversation with your supervisor or know the meal you just had was amazing.Knowing is easy. Knowing is the beginning of gratitude - it is gratitude. Once able to understand that gratitude is a kind of knowing it becomes easier to apply in our everyday lives.Knowing gives you three things:

• A way to keep you focused on the good in your life.
• A networking tool to stay in touch with people by thanking them.
• Its a form of generosity that gives social capital (using listening skills on a cognitive, social, emotional, phycological level.

Getting feedback from situations can help you improve your gratitude.Getting bad news can be rough. But if you listen to the feedback people give you, they will tell you what you need to know.Sometimes its a gift disguised as bad news. Accept both.It has a way to transform bad to good, unpleasant to interesting and stagnation into progress.Accept all of it - good and bad, taking to know everything in a situation changes your perspective on anything.It's a matter of saying yes to what life gives you.  Embrace the feelings that come - happiness, anger, frustration, but don't stay there. Say yes to the circumstances in life. Take a mili second to accept things as they are, then take a moment to reflect what went well each day -morning or evening.

After listing it made me stop and reflect with visceral intentionality.This morning I went and stopped for Starbucks and grabbed a hot caramel mocha - it was a bit chilly today - but the workers there seemed so upset. A lady and I exchanged a few kind words and noticed this location did ask for our names as they took our orders. This changed my experience of shopping at the store. Rather than hold a grudge, I wished the woman well on this gloomy day and that gave me a sense that the day would go well.I suggest checking out the podcast and start practicing gratitude, thanks and knowing on a new level.