Thursday, November 26, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving

A day centered around gratitude.  What a wonderful idea.

Gratitude not enough of a word.  There are many kinds of gratitude.

There is the sense of relief gratitude for having dodged some sort of bullet.

There is the "thank heaven that's not me" sense of gratitude.

There is the happiness to be in the right place at the right time sort of gratitude.

There is the sense of reward and fulfillment that maybe you don't think you fully deserve sort of gratitude.

Most of those are what I would call gratitude 101 - beginner's gratitude.

For the next level of gratitude you need to transcend your self.  This usually ends up involving some higher power, like a God, or some magical power like luck or the cosmos or whatever.

For the next level of gratitude, you need to also transcend God.  If God had a role in your positive results, its normally based on your performance to some task.  So, transcending yourself and God is the pathway to true gratitude.

Here is a simple example.  You wake up.  It's a nice day.  You're happy.

First level of gratitude:  Hey.  I'm not dead.  That's awesome.  Many people didn't wake up this morning.

Second level of gratitude:  God gave me this beautiful day to use to do something great.

Third level of gratitude:  Non-verbal warmth.  Smile.  Deep breath.  Exhale.

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