Gratitude brings freedom from envy!
I had a rough week. Feeling overwhelmed with work. I've overcommitted myself again. It seems like I've been working 12-hour days for too long.
At dinner tonight, we saw some examples of stupid (lazy?) humans. Recall the lyric 'only stupid people are breeding' rings true. And I spoke to our waitress. She looked tired. She shared that she had worked at a bakery this morning. And it's a holiday weekend. Between the bakery and the restaurant, she was well beyond a 12-hour day. On top of that, she has to deal with stupid people. People who are ungrateful, people who are difficult, people who haven't grown up. I watched the other waiter proceed to clean up the puke left behind by a kid who shouldn't have been there (and the dad who proceeded to ignore the fact that his offspring were disrupting the entire restaurant). And then I went to use the bathroom and discovered the toilet was clogged (did the human who clogged it even bother to tell the host? Apparently not). And this poor waiter who had just cleaned up the puke was not tasked with getting the toilet unclogged. And it was in that moment that I realized no matter how 'difficult' my job felt at any point in time, I was not wiping up another person's puke or plunging another human's crap. My god, I have nothing to complain about.
“Gratitude is a powerful catalyst for happiness. It’s the spark that lights a fire of joy in your soul.” ― Amy Collette, The Gratitude Connection
"Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity...it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." — MELODY BEATTIE
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” — Oprah
It's a program you can run and it's one you ought to run on a regular basis! Being grateful allows us to not miss out on the unique opportunities life has given each of us.
On any given day, in only a few minutes, I can easily list a dozen things I am grateful for.
Gratitude counters aversion and generosity cuts through greed and envy (which are forms of self-destructive self-talk that do more harm to ourselves).
Daily Practice: Every morning write down several things you are grateful for. In the evening write a few lines about how generosity showed up spontaneously during the day. Take a picture of one thing (or person) each day you are grateful for. Upload the pictures to a gratitude folder on Flickr. You can create a personal gratitude book at the end of 30 days to create a potent resource to return to whenever you get into a funk.
Consider the days you are not feeling so grateful there is always something. You just need to look deeper. For example: Your birth, food, shelter and medical care, supportive relationships with others. Share your stories (and photos) of generosity and gratitude.