“Gratitude begins in the heart and then dovetails into behavior. It almost always makes you willing to be of service, which is where the joy resides.” Anne Lamott If gratitude is a habit, then it must be practiced each and every day. In your mind or out loud, you must repeat over and over again “thank you, thank you, thank you” until it rolls off your tongue like a beautiful operetta. Repetition of appreciation allows the mind and soul to refocus your life on the graces and blessings rather than the hardships and challenges. This process of ingraining gratitude into every fiber of your being becomes radical especially when things are happening all around you that cause you great discomfort, sadness or strife. Even if life deals you a particularly difficult hand yesterday, today, or tomorrow, when you are aware and pay attention to your blessings you are liberated from the heaviness and delivered into the light. When you allow yourself to believe that in the darkness there resides something beautiful, you open yourself up to be of service and that is truly where joy is born. Thus, with joy, you get to feel grateful for more and more. The attitude of gratitude habit is something that will guide you to a place of pure bliss if you let it. A place that can appear far-reaching and radical at times, yet so very possible. So remember to repeat over and over again – thank you thank you thank you- and what was once foreign to you will become a habit that you will take with you into each day! And therein, can’t you just feel the world change right before your eyes? Grateful for you all.
