Reasons To Remain Grateful

A few days back, I had a discussion with a friend and he complained about certain things which he saw as problems. However, what he failed to understand was that what he called problems were actually the wishes of many people. Okay imagine this; someone is complaining that he finished from the University with a very fine 1st class degree for the last 6 months but he has not gotten a job. I had to open his eyes to see the fact that he should be grateful first for having the privilege to go to school, which a lot of people do not have, and then graduating with good result. If this is not more than enough to be happy and grateful, then what will?

The reason why a lot of people are passing through one form of depressed state or the other is because they have focused more on the negative side of what is happening to them and not on the blessings that they have received. When you focus more on what you have instead of what you think you do not have, you will see that you will have reasons to be grateful. I normally take a reflection of myself at the moment and then compare it to where I began from, so as to enhance my attitude of gratitude. The truth is that you may not be more happy than you are grateful. That is, the more grateful you are about life, the more joyous you become.

In order to remain grateful, there are things that you need to understand and take handy with. The first one is to have contentment. It is true that you may not have gotten everything that you ever wanted and you may not even have as much possessions as you want, but it does not take away the fact that you have gotten something worthwhile, so be grateful. It is worthy to note that contentment does not becloud your obvious needs, rather it takes away the actions of desperation. And when you are contented, you will begin to see that you are actually blessed beyond what you could imagine.

To help your lifestyle of gratefulness, also, you need to stay around people that are grateful, not those that will always complain and talk about negativities. Trust me, the more you stay around ungrateful people, the more you draw away from gratitude, and the more you join them in their ingratitude. But if you stay with positive people that will always be appreciative and grateful even for little, your own lifestyle of gratitude will be enhanced. If you observe that the people who you stay often with normally make you to start to complain about life instead of being appreciative of it, then you need to change your circle. Your friends should positively add to you, not draw you away from good.

The next thing to do in order to maintain your heart of gratitude is to count your blessings. If you take a list of what you never asked for that you received, you will discover how blessed you are. One of my mentors explained how one of his friends came to him to complain about something that he thought was not working for him and how he was feeling depressed about it. Then he asked him to get two sheets of paper; on one, he should write what is not working for him. On the other, he should write what is working for him. To his surprise, the sheet that contained what is working for him was full, but the other one was almost empty. This showed that a lot of things were working for him but he did not see them because he did not count his blessings all these while. Trust me, when you take a moment to count your blessings, you will be amazed at how blessed you really are.

The last point to consider is that, for you to grow in gratitude, you should remove comparison from your life. Trust me, at your own level, you are doing very well. So do not allow someone else's success to set a standard or become a precedence for you. Instead of comparing yourself with others, try to focus on yourself more and what concerns you, and you will grow in gratefulness. Always remember that gratitude is not a gift, rather it is a choice.

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