Dryas

Help me understand gratitude

17 posts in this topic

Well, since it’s thanksgiving. 
 

I don’t understand how being grateful works. If I am grateful for something today, there’s always the possibility that I loose that thing tomorrow. If I try to recount my blessings, I can always look to compare myself with someone who’s had greater luck with the genetic and socio economic lottery. Also, what do the most unfortunate and unlucky people in history have to be grateful for? The idea seems almost offensive when we look at it from their perspective. 
 

Honestly, this idea seems like it stems from religious bs although I also see it in self help and some spiritual teachings. I remember my (religious) parents talking to me about this stuff and it never quite made sense to me. So yea, how does this work (if it works at all)? 

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It definitely helps with not taking things for granted whether they continue to exist tomorrow or not. 

 


INFJ-T,ptsd,BPD, autism, anger issues

Cleared out ignore list today. 

..

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I see, so that is supposed to be an outcome and so that you take extra care for that thing. Although I also feel like this can lead to an attachment but this makes a little more sense. 

Edited by Dryas

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go 40 days without food and then eat again and you'll naturally feel grateful for the food.

or experience a hellish bad trip and then come out the other end and you will feel grateful for the relief

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You are being too logical. 

Just feel into the present. 

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Sometime you fall into the trap of compering yourself to other people,

You think about what's wrong in you and in your life instead of what's good and what's work.

You see all those successful, social, beautiful, happy people around you, you see all those high social standards and you feel so low compered to them, so looser. Your life seems so pity, so lame compered to others.

"Why can't I be like him/her?"

"Why my life is so hard and lame?"

We all fall to those traps automatically. Those traps lead us to negative emotions that sabotage our passion to life, our joy, authenticity, growth, love for ourselves and others, it's like a cancer.

We live in a very competitive alienated society and it's very easy to feel that what we are is not good enough and what our life is not as good as it should be.

This is why it's so important to practice gratitude, EVERY SINGLE DAY. Just in order to remind to yourself about the things that work in your life, that are good, that you value and grateful for.

It's a mystical practice which brings you more positivity to your life, makes you emotionally stronger, increases your general life satisfaction, brings you to the present, to the now. connects you to your body and to your life, it's a meditation, you feel more connected to the source when you practice gratitude, your emotional level improves, you starts to feel the abundance of life, you start to feel like God's favorite child.

Just say "I'm grateful for..." or write it in your journal at the end of your day. you'll notice how your mood improves. It's so simple and healthy.

You can be grateful for anything you find positive in your life. Examples:

I'm grateful for my existence, someone made efforts to brings me to this world

I'm grateful for the tasty food I ate today

I'm grateful for the shower I took today, it brought me so many good ideas

I'm grateful for being strong and healthy, life is much more easier that way

I'm grateful for the freedom of will and thought

I'm grateful for my curiosity, life seems so interesting for me

I'm grateful for all the things I've learned today

I'm grateful for having a place to sleep, in safety

I'm grateful for morning's coffee, It was so good!

I'm grateful for my pets, they bring me so much happiness

I'm grateful for the book that I discovered today, It might help me to open my mind a bit more

I'm grateful for my healthy hair, it means that I know how to take care of myself

I'm grateful for the nice dream I had today, it felt so real and it brought me so many positive emotions

I'm grateful for living at this cool era and not at some dark age

I'm grateful for the walk I took today, it felt so refreshing

I'm grateful for.....

I'm grateful for.....

I'm grateful for.....

 

 

 

Edited by Random witch

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My words of wisdom on gratitude are that it: creates more of what you want because you recognize/place focus on the thing you are grateful for. 


"You Create Magic" 

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Gratitude is a recognition of truth.

You have chosen to be exactly where and how you are, but the illusion of separation often brings about fear and other negative emotions, rooted in ignorance. Gratitude is a return to the truth, a dispelling of the illusion that there are any problems. It's Love.


Alternative Rock Music and Spirituality on YouTube: The Buddha Visions

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Take the time and idea of ownership out of it and it's much more enjoyable and naturally arises. Today I went to a really nice place someone else owns and appreciated a lot that isn't mine. Appreciated stuff that is "mine." Same thing in the moment. Then got home and got out of the car and the stars tonight... ? took my breath away. (And that's not mine either.)


My Youtube Channel- Light on Earth “We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the Secret sits in the middle and knows.”― Robert Frost

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When you are grateful you can't be negative. You are grounded in possitive emotions and stop focusing on the 'bad' things. This is extremely important to create the things you want in your life. It's a cheat code that you can use. The more you practice the better you feel. That said it's not easy. 

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7 hours ago, Dryas said:

If I try to recount my blessings, I can always look to compare myself with someone who’s had greater luck with the genetic and socio economic lottery.

Gratitude is the ultimate blessing. Those who don't have it are the most unfortunate.

Edited by Gesundheit2

Foolish until proven other-wise ;)

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8 hours ago, Random witch said:

This is why it's so important to practice gratitude, EVERY SINGLE DAY. Just in order to remind to yourself about the things that work in your life, that are good, that you value and grateful for.

4 hours ago, BlackMaze said:

When you are grateful you can't be negative. You are grounded in possitive emotions and stop focusing on the 'bad' things. This is extremely important to create the things you want in your life. It's a cheat code that you can use. The more you practice the better you feel. That said it's not easy. 

This sounds terrible to me. It's like you're emotionally devastated by those comparisons and thus are dependent on this exercise in order

to not feel totally miserable about your existence. A major coping mechanism basically. I don't know, it just feels very twisted.

I'd rather deconstruct and eliminate the process of comparison altogether.

 

5 hours ago, mandyjw said:

Take the time and idea of ownership out of it and it's much more enjoyable and naturally arises. Today I went to a really nice place someone else owns and appreciated a lot that isn't mine. Appreciated stuff that is "mine." Same thing in the moment. Then got home and got out of the car and the stars tonight... ? took my breath away. (And that's not mine either.)

You were grateful for someone else owning a nice place? How does that work?

I mean, you can't really apply the idea of ownership to stars anyway. That's just weird lol.

9 hours ago, blankisomeone said:

go 40 days without food and then eat again and you'll naturally feel grateful for the food.

or experience a hellish bad trip and then come out the other end and you will feel grateful for the relief

Fair enough

2 hours ago, Gesundheit2 said:

Gratitude is the ultimate blessing. Those who don't have it are the most unfortunate.

Is that because they have the lowest place in society or?

5 hours ago, Gili Trawangan said:

Gratitude is a return to the truth, a dispelling of the illusion that there are any problems.

How so? Aren't you creating dualities in this process and thus kinda reinforcing the illusion of separation?

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Gratitude is a practice in context awareness. You tend to get habituated to stable external conditions, and when you're constantly fixed on your own contracted personal perspective, it invokes a feeling of stagnation. If you take a look outside your own immediate conditions and contrast it to some other perspective, you can temporarily unveil this sense of stagnation and regain a sense of direction.


Intrinsic joy is revealed in the marriage of meaning and being.

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15 minutes ago, Dryas said:

Is that because they have the lowest place in society or?

Wha?!


Foolish until proven other-wise ;)

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13 hours ago, Dryas said:

This sounds terrible to me. It's like you're emotionally devastated by those comparisons and thus are dependent on this exercise in order

to not feel totally miserable about your existence. A major coping mechanism basically. I don't know, it just feels very twisted.

I'd rather deconstruct and eliminate the process of comparison altogether.

This is what you understood. Not at all what i meant. I never used the word projection but this seems like one. 

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16 hours ago, Dryas said:

This sounds terrible to me. It's like you're emotionally devastated by those comparisons and thus are dependent on this exercise in order

to not feel totally miserable about your existence. A major coping mechanism basically. I don't know, it just feels very twisted.

I'd rather deconstruct and eliminate the process of comparison altogether.

 

No, you don't have to compare yourself to others. You just realize what you have. you have food, you have water, you have shelter, there's nothing wrong in being grateful for what you already have. It doesn't make you a bad person to be grateful for what you already have.

Ignoring the good things in life is already a coping mechanism, your post and anti is a coping mechanism. Many people afraid and think that if they will be grateful for something they have, it will disappear abruptly. It's an illusion. 

 

 

Edited by Random witch

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