Thinking about It

In prayers, gratitude is shown in the various rituals through different ways. Since the Lord gives us everything, we try to offer the best we have to Him. We praise the Lord, sing meaningful phrases in the Aarti, or provide offerings as an expression of our gratitude. Often when we pray, we ask for something. Today, let us pray to really feel our gratitude for gratitude is, in fact, our best prayer. Follow this session to write your gratitude prayer so you may pray genuinely in gratitude.

Expand your gratitude with today's session, for gratitude has no limit. There is nothing to stop us from being grateful and it is indeed easy to practice! What is needed is simply the opening up of your mind to find things to be thankful for. Beyond being grateful for the good that happens to us, today we realise how we can also be grateful for things and people that have enriched the lives of our loved ones.

In making us appreciate the value of things and people, gratitude not only empowers us to see the glass as half-full, but also prevents the half-full from leaking away. As we stop to notice that we are constantly getting more, the glass gets more and more full – a concept often overlooked since we tend to forget our previous gains. Today, we note that things are not lost, but simply, forgotten. As such, we must remember them with gratitude.

Our sense of gratitude grows when we understand just how much we have been given. It empowers us to be humble because we realise we are getting more than we give, more than we work for, and even more than we deserve! We have been taken care of since we were in our mothers' womb, where everything had been provided for us without even asking for it. In noticing just how many things have come to us without our request or need for it, we should bask in gratitude for how we have so graciously been taken care of.

We first think gratitude means appreciating all the good. But what about the bad? Like all the positive things we can be thankful for, we can even be grateful for the things that have gone wrong in our life! Let's see these unpleasant, past experiences as powerful lessons that have, in turn, shaped us into the people we are today. When we are ready to be grateful for everything, the good and the bad, we turn what was once our sufferings into blessings.

Awareness is the first step to gratitude. The more we expose yourself to gratitude, the easier it gets. Gratitude is a secret weapon that improves our lives drastically. The more we wield it, the stronger we become. It reduces stress while boosting our mood and self-esteem. By making us more giving and cooperative, gratitude naturally allows us to have healthier relationships and progress in our work.

Did you know that, on average, we blink around 15 to 20 times each minute, amounting to 10% of our day being spent on merely blinking? The act of blinking sounds so simple but its complex purpose serves many functions of protection. Similarly, our whole body is constantly working to serve and protect us, even when we are not aware of it. Today, we centre our concentration on showing gratitude for our body, the important roles it plays and the significantly determinative influence it has over our health.

When we think of our desire for happiness, we tend to create thought patterns where we consequently postpone our happiness by saying, "I will be happy when…"

But instead of delaying our happiness, we can be happy now by turning our attention away from what we do not have yet and focusing on all the things we currently already have. With gratitude, delve into your meditation by asking yourself "What am I grateful for?", and let your thoughts drive you deeper within in your search for happiness.

Our ancestors, be it our immediate lineage or even the history of the city we are a part of, are pillars upon whom and what we make offerings to. They have worked to create the world we have been born into, and we merely benefit from it. Today, we focus our gratitude in remembrance of them and what they created, ensuring we do not destroy it, but rather, build on it.

When we 'like' others' posts on social media to broaden networking, be effective in commercial professions and increase standards of living, albeit for different intentions, we do a similar thing within spirituality. The purpose of doing so in the spiritual world is to better people, create meaningful relationships and add value to our standard of life. Today, we focus on giving positive feedback and making people feel valued so that we can express our gratitude for others.