By Don Ginn
I have a wonderful friend who is adept at living her life in a state of gratitude and appreciation. And it’s no coincidence that her life is one continuous joy after another. The light of gratitude seems to always surround her. She beams with gratitude, even during her most difficult times.
I quizzed her one day to find out her secret to living in this state of constant gratitude. Her responses were simple but powerful. First of all, she said, “Consciously focus each day on the things you are the most grateful for—and, at the very least, begin to find the good in the things you are not yet able to feel grateful about.”
“Secondly,” she continued, “never, ever take any part of your life for granted. Constantly look for the magic in each moment.”
Finally, and perhaps most profound of all, she said, “Know that whatever loss has occurred in your life will always be replaced by something equal or greater—if you hold true to gratitude.”
She went on to tell me a story that clearly demonstrates the power of gratitude in controlling our moods and creating our destiny. To put it in her words, “The town I lived in was hit hard recently with a lot of rain and major flooding. On the news one night they announced that it had rained 54 out of the last 59 days. Due to the lack of sunshine for these 54 days, nearly everyone I talked to was complaining about being depressed. But I hadn’t experienced even the slightest sense of depression, as I hadn’t perceived these rainy days as being dark and gloomy at all.
“I started wondering why the lack of sunshine hadn’t affected me as it had many of my friends. And then I realized that appreciation and gratitude play a major role in lighting up our lives. They act like a sun lamp. Depression simply cannot take hold because it can’t cast a shadow on a grateful heart. With gratitude, we don’t have to depend upon the sun to brighten up our day. Our lives are lit from the inside out. A life filled with gratitude is a life free of sadness and depression.”
Here, perhaps, is the essence of what I’ve discovered. There’s a cause-and-effect relationship with both gratitude and ingratitude. A life filled with ingratitude is, to one degree or another, an unhappy life, because it casts a shadow upon our world and steals away our brightest moments. There is always a price to pay when we choose to live in a state of ingratitude.
However, there are great rewards that come when you live your life with a grateful heart. With the use of this principle, we have complete control over enriching the quality of our lives at any given moment. All we have to do is raise our level of appreciation for everything around us. The moment we do, our lives will begin to increase in value.
Several years ago, Oprah Winfrey dedicated a segment of more than fifty of her daily talk shows to the topic of gratitude. My guess is there has seldom been a show on television that focused on any single topic for such a long period of time. So, why did Oprah do this? It’s simple—she had her own life-changing experience with the transformational power of gratitude. And she was on a mission to share this principle with the world.
Day in, day out—for months—Oprah had celebrities, best-selling authors, and people in her studio audience share their profound experiences with gratitude. Time after time, she made a guarantee to the millions of people watching her show. The guarantee was basically this: their lives would change for the better just as soon as they raised their level of gratitude.
Oprah had discovered that gratitude is more than just a thought; that there’s a special power in gratitude that can change the world for the better. And that all we have to do is tap into deeper and deeper levels of gratitude and our lives will improve—always.
There is a way to view life where practically every moment seems like a miracle. You must simply view it through the eyes of deep gratitude. By being grateful for what you have, instead of focusing on what you feel you’re lacking, your life will become more abundant.
While focusing more consciously on the things she had to be grateful for, Oprah, along with many people in her studio audience, had a life-changing experience with the power of gratitude. It was her hope—and it’s mine, too—that millions more can have this experience.
Excerpted from The Principle, A Golden Key to Happiness, Copyright Don Ginn 2004. Don Ginn is an author, keynote speaker, business coach and producer of audio programs in the personal development field. Contact him at donginn@gmail.com.
186 Seven Farms Drive
Ste F242
Daniel Island, SC 29492
Contact
Subscribe to our Blog for instant access to 2 free reports.
Learn how to create and accept the future you deserve. Wake-up every day feeling refreshed and in love with life!