Article - Understanding Gratitude

I read an article I want to share. It was posted a couple of years ago at the Huffington Post blog and written by Joel and Michelle Levey on Understanding the Science of Gratitude.

The article looks at two key symptoms of our society and how gratitude can play a role in healing the effects of both.

1. The feeling of not having enough and not being enough
2. Keeping busy in an effort to help alleviate the feeling of lack

Our internal lack mentality, along with the flow of messages from our environment, serves to reinforce the belief: if we had more we would find the happiness we seek. So we fall prey to any shiny object that appears to be able to give us more while seeking whatever we believe could make us feel we are enough and have enough.

The Levey's discuss how we look for external sources to provide satisfaction and happiness when the place to look is within.

Gratitude becomes the antidote. It gives us a method of focusing on the gifts we already have and encourages a positive view of life. "We shift from spinning in perpetual motion on the wheel of seeking happiness from the outside-in to generating happiness from the inside-out."

The article goes on to share the benefits of a daily gratitude practice and of keeping a gratitude journal. Also included, are examples of how gratitude is expressed in various spiritual traditions and a guided gratitude meditation that can easily be followed.

To read the Levey's article, visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-michelle-levey/understanding-gratitude_b_888208.html