Have you noticed that when something goes wrong people advise you to always count your blessings? Yet, others have a regular daily practice of “counting their blessings” regardless of situations happening around them. Essentially “counting your blessings”, means being grateful for the people and things that you have in your life.
For most people, there are a number of friends, family and co-workers that you could be grateful for in your life as well as many physical things like owning a home, car and a number of other items.
There are a couple of ways to look at the practice of gratitude to understand at a deeper level the true benefits of adding gratitude practice to your daily activities. Some people have a viewpoint of thinking instead of things they are grateful for in their lives, to look instead at the things that they don’t have. That is more of a scarcity mentality of never reaching all that they want. Those people often suffer more stress, anxiety and depression in their lives, while their lives seem to be about chasing the things they don’t have.
On the flip side, those who instead focus on each thing they are grateful for and find joy and contentment in those things, also tend to have an abundance mentality. By looking for things to be grateful for, they often end up finding an abundance of resources in everyone and everything around them. This activity is very healthy and those folks find themselves with lower stress and a much higher quotient of happiness.
True wealth is not measured by what’s in your bank account; it is measured by how many lives you touch in a positive way, how many strong and healthy relationships you nurture and how much you are able to encourage and empower others.
Essentially, wealth can be compared to having abundance and gratitude in your life. If you are surrounded by people who love and respect you, you will instantly feel treasured in return. When babies are born, they don’t ask for your love, they love and trust you from the moment they come into this world. What they want, from birth is to be loved and taken care of with no strings attached!
You can easily begin a daily practice of “counting your blessing” gratitude sessions. First spend a few minutes every day either journaling your gratitude in a daily journal or work in your thankfulness recitation into daily mantra or meditation practice.
By understanding the many things that you have gone through in your life and recognizing how far you’ve come, will offer greater insight into overcoming struggles, fears and reinforce successes. Knowledge is power in helping you empower your own life and many of these gratitude moments are those that you want to remember, relish and enjoy.
It is your friends and family that are a huge source of gratitude for most people. Besides counting your blessings for having them in your life, let them know frequently how thankful you are for them being in your life. By telling them how you feel, you reinforce mutual feelings of love and respect which can have a greater impact and reach than you thought possible.