The Power of Gratitude

As we enter into the New Year, many must have flocked into churches fir the traditional cross-over night services. The main focus of these services is to thank God for being alive to witness another year. There are a number of other people who didn’t consider themselves religious, but still gather in one place or the other to celebrate the New Year. Many thank God for being alive in their own way. It is a season to be grateful. However, is thankfulness and gratitude a seasonal thing? Should we be grateful only when we have big things to celebrate? What about all the other times and seasons of our lives. What about those times when life seems to be a routine, when we are barely moving from one day to the other without anything significant to make us happy and excited? What about those times when negative things have actually happened to us and we have course to be bitter, frustrated and angry? Do we still talk about gratitude? What about people who think and believe that they don’t have anything to be grateful for?



Is there anything to be grateful for? 
Really, the year 2012 was a rough and tough time in the lives of individuals, families, nations and the world at large. Listening to the media, the electronic and print, one is fed with negative occurrences going on in different parts of the world. There seem to be so much evil, famine, violence, hatred, rape, anger and anything but positive in this world. In Nigeria where I live, we have had our own fair share of natural disasters, insurgencies, bomb blast, air disasters, car crashes, random shootings, kidnappings, murders as well as economic hardship, job layoffs etc. Is there anything to be grateful for?

There is a reason to be grateful. 
Yes, there is a lot to be grateful for. As a matter of fact, the more negatives we see around, the more the indications that there is a lot to be grateful for! Even if you are a victim of any of the above mentioned things, or any of your loved ones have been victims of them; the mere fact that you are reading my post today shows that you have at least one thing to be grateful for. The gift of life!

Gratitude is an attitude. 
Gratitude is a great attitude! A grateful heart sends out vibrations of love and thanks. Thanks only come from lips, love and thanks come from the heart and soul. There are people who never get ruffled about anything negative going on in their lives. They see something to be grateful for in every adverse situation. There are some others who see nothing to be grateful for in anything, no matter how favourable the situation is. They are simply manifesting their inner believes and attributes. And just like the saying goes, ‘your attitude determines your altitude,’ your gratitude will determine your altitude.

The benefits of gratitude 
 I don’t think I want to give a lift of benefits here because the benefits cannot be exhaustive. You have probably heard of the different laws of life. One of the most prominent and popular of these is the law of attraction. It is said that you attract the theme of your most dominant thought. If therefore you have the attitude of gratitude, your most dominant thought will be gratitude and your will therefore attract more things to be grateful for! But if you become ungrateful you will draw more into your life, things to be ungrateful about. You will therefore attract into your life undesirable outcomes. It is that simple. When you are living in gratitude, you will attract to yourself abundance of success, blessings and riches. For one, the positive vibrations of happiness, joy, confidence and goodwill that you radiate will attract to you opportunities that you will otherwise have missed with an ungrateful attitude.

How do you develop an attitude of gratitude? 
Just as it is so with the Law of Gravity which operates universally, so is the law of gratitude. The Law is impersonal. Remember that the law of attraction also works through gratitude and gratitude works through the law of attraction. So, even when you are not feeling like it, once you start practicing the act of gratitude, by frequent practice and the fact that it fills your thoughts, you start attracting to yourself the real attitude of gratitude. And in no time, you attract to yourself all the good things that life has to offer.


By Kingsley Okonoda
www.netwealthconsult.com.
Kingsley Okonoda aka @mayorking is a Psychiatrist, Trainer, Life Coach, Social Entrepreneur, Public Speaker, Transformational Teacher. He is the CEO of Netwealth Consult; your ideal productive partners in Lifestyle Consulting, Training, Wealth Creation, Personal Development, Peak Performance, Travels and Tours, Events Management.