Gratitude is a very important attribute of human behaviour. It makes us able to understand the value of our life and its different aspects. Gratitude teaches us how to live a happy and contented life. It also tells us the importance of what we have. A grateful person leads a contented and peaceful life filled with all the happiness of the world.
“Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
“Gratitude is a powerful catalyst for happiness. It’s the spark that lights a fire of joy in your soul.” ~ Amy Collette
It generates some good quality in us like kindness, helpful to others etc. These qualities definitely enhances our status in the society and most importantly in our eyes. You will see changing yourself from a say selfish person to a gentle and kind-hearted person or from an arrogant person to a kind person.
The more practice of gratitude will change your whole life for better. You will feel fantastic and happy. It will create a habit of helping others and may start some charity work for the poor.
So let’s see how gratitude can make us happy.
1.Gratitude improves relationships
Gratitude is the driving force of improvement in all aspects of life. It shows the value of our relationship with our family and friends. The value of the relationship is recognised once we are grateful for what we have.
The main factor in any relationship is understanding and some sacrifice The grateful persons are ready to sacrifice because they value the relationship more than that of their personal issues.
Importance of a good relationship is understood by a person of high wisdom. It comes with the practice of Gratitude. Gratitude makes it possible for us to see beyond the normal strata of life. All the unexplored sections of the personal relationships can be felt with the gratitude. It gives us knowledge about the true value of life and relationship.
“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.” – Karl Barth
2. It germinates kindness
When we start thinking about the values of life and the people around us. The feeling of kindness starts in us. Gratitude encourages us to help others out of kindness. Kindness is the highest form of a human value. Kindness benefits both the giver and the receiver.
Gratitude is the mother of all virtues. Studies have found that gratitude increases the chances of a person to be kind. A kind person can feel the sadness of others and is ready to help. This readiness to help others is the first step toward kindness. The more you offer help to others the more you become kind.
“You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“No one who achieves success does so without the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.” ~ Alfred North Whitehead
Kindness also do a lot of changes in our mindset. We start thinking about the welfare of others. It makes us so good that we forget to think about ourselves and starts thinking about how can we do good to others. Kindness is the virtue of God and helps all. So we tend to have some qualities of God.
As we know God is omnipresent. He is inside of all living organisms. He do his work of kindness through the kind people. So it is the work of God and we must do it with ultimate purity without any selfishness.
3. Strengthens physical health
We all know the importance of physical health in our life. If want to enjoy life to its fullest, our physical health should be good. A grateful person understands the importance of physical health. He is grateful to have good health.
If we see in our surroundings we will see several people have bad health and they keep on trying to improve it. The value of anything increases when we have lost it or about to lose. A grateful person respects his health and the health of others. So he tries to improve his health regularly.
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others.” ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
Physical health depends on how we value it. If we just want to have a slim body in the name of health then it’s not healthy. We must consider the fact that merely a slim body can’t give us good health. It is something more than just the shape of the body.
If you have a good state of mind and you love your work, life and other factors of life including a good physical body, then only you can consider it a healthy body. A grateful person knows all these things through various experiences of life. So he truly invests in achieving real health.
4. Alleviates mental health
Mental health is equally important as physical health. In fact, mental health is more important than physical health. Suppose a person is physically perfect but has a lot of mental issues. Then he will be miserable and unhappy no matter what he achieves in life.
Therefore the importance of mental health can’t be ignored. It is mental health that brings real happiness in life. Mental health is like the soul of the body, without it the real happiness is a nightmare.
“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” ~ Buddha
Mental health is like software the runs hardware. Our physical body is like the hardware that is run by the mental body i.e. software of the body. So the improved quality of the software will definitely improve the functioning of the hardware i.e. our body.
Therefore it is the sole responsibility of each one of us to improve the software part of the body. It is improved with Gratitude in a very easy manner. You just have to be grateful and after some time you will see the difference.
5. Gratitude revamps empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand what another person is feeling in his conditions. To achieve empathy for others we must know the value of human being. Empathy is automatically generated when we feel grateful. A grateful person knows the value of human necessity that makes him empathetic to others.
Gratitude enhances our capacity of the feeling value of others that start the characteristic of empathy in us. We started thinking about the wellness of others and wish for their happiness and well being.
“There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.” ~ Ralph H. Blum
If we help others, believe me, it is best to service a human being. This ability comes with gratitude. A grateful person knows the value of humanity. He started his life in the service of others. It gives him a lot of satisfaction and peace of mind. This is a great source of happiness in life.
6. Grateful people feel better in every state of life
Grateful people are free from negativity and any kind of expectations from others that lead to absolute happiness in life. They know the real meaning of life, they can easily segregate real happiness from a fake one.
A grateful person knows how to live a happy and contented life in every condition of life. He lives a life like a warrior who lives his life confidently and dies in battle with the pride of serving the nation and knows the true value of life and death.
A grateful person has seen different aspect of life through his various act of humanity. So he is aware of most of the conditions in life where a person lose heart and hope. This knowledge gives him the confidence to feel better in every condition of life.
“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” ~ Willie Nelson
A grateful person has no attachment with worldly possessions. So they have no fear of losing things and this is the main reason for happiness. We know that attachment creates sorrow in us. So a grateful person is free from the sorrow of the world.
7. Gratitude upgrades self-esteem
A person’s self-esteem increases when he understands the true value of life. The true value of life is understood by the grateful person. A grateful person knows each aspect of life. So in the light of this knowledge, he knows the true value of himself which helps him to enhance his self-esteem.
A grateful person knows that he is useful to society, so he never undervalues himself. He knows he can help others in a better way by the passage of time.
So he always tries to improve himself. In the process of continuous improvement, he finds his self-esteem has upgraded many folds.
“Gratitude will shift you to a higher frequency, and you will attract much better things.” ~ Rhonda Byrne