Learn to say thank you. A great reminder of the importance of practicing gratitude daily in your life from the people around you.
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
Saying Thank You: A Gratitude Meditation
The human race has accomplished a remarkable number of feats over the course of the past several thousand years. Where other animals are predominantly confined to their existing circumstances — few creatures are able to do more than affect a very small amount of change on whatever environment they find themselves in — we humans are enormously skilled when it comes to altering our current state of being.
For generations upon generations, we’ve successively identified one problem after another that needs fixing. If there’s something about our environment that we’re not satisfied with, we change it. It’s as simple as that. We want our lives to be more exciting, more pleasurable, and more stimulating. As a result, technological innovation over the past few thousands of years (or, for that matter, simply the past few decades) has been enormous.
Being Mindful and Grateful
While we’re incredibly good at fixing problems, though, we’re not so great at acknowledging what’s already wonderful about our situation. Mindfulness doesn’t seem to come naturally for many of us. As humans, we seem to have a knack for always pointing to what’s wrong about a situation. We find things to be dissatisfied about, and then we seek to change or fix them. Rarely, though, do we simply sit back and acknowledge everything that’s already good about the world.
The more time we spend attempting to point out the world’s faults, the more faults we’ll continue to find. Many of us have more material wealth and security than earlier generations did. And yet, in spite of this, plenty of people say they feel anxious, worried, or low.
Learn how to say thank you — learning to practice having an attitude of gratitude — can be a helpful counterweight to this habit. In this mindfulness video, you can begin to bring gratitude into your daily life.
