Gratitude: The Key to a Happy, Healthy, Successful Life
Sharon Huffman, founder of the Center for Enlightened Leadership, teaches inspired leadership and true empowerment. She has been a consultant to leaders in every field all over the world. She coaches individuals in reaching their full potential and living in balance, while making a noble contribution to our world. She is a speaker, consultant, and author. Her work is included in WOMEN OF VISION, published by Nataraj; and CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL, by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen.
This morning as I took my walk, I was filled with gratitude. The sky was blue, the temperature a balmy 74 degrees, and everywhere I looked there was beauty. Lush, breathtaking beauty—green rolling hills, flowers and palm trees, the sound of waterfalls and fountains, ponds filled with ducks, a stork in mid-flight over the lake, and magnificent snow-capped mountains. As I took in this opulence as far as the eye could see, I was overcome with gratitude.
I thought back to a time three months ago when I hiked in the freezing mountain snow and asked my spiritual source to guide me to a warmer, more beautiful place where I could take my morning walks. I remembered filling my heart with gratitude for all that I had been given, and almost without effort, I was gracefully led to this beautiful paradise.
In my 15 years of coaching clients to lead successful, happy lives, I discovered a secret. If I taught them to practice gratitude, everything in their life transformed. They felt good about themselves and were empowered to create the future they desired. The events in their life and their ability to respond in a positive way made a complete 360-degree turn. It was as if they had found a magic wand.
Gratitude changes the way we view life and ourselves. Difficult situations that were once intolerable and seemingly unchangeable, transform. The moment we feel gratitude, the situation begins to lighten, and then we can see the opportunities to create change. We feel better about ourselves and our ability to positively affect our environment and our world. Depression lifts, conflict turns to harmony, and stress releases to peace. When gratitude becomes a way of life, success, happiness, and health become the norm.
Whenever we feel angry, fearful, sad, or depressed, we have lost our gratitude. I can remember countless times when I felt resentful or down in the dumps and have chosen to count my blessings and feel grateful for all that I have. Almost immediately, I felt better. When we find something to be grateful for in a situation that has been troubling us, it uplifts and energizes us.
As soon as we feel gratitude, everything changes. It can transform a situation where you feel sadness and loss that, in turn, draws more sadness and loss to you, to one of joy and happiness. The very same situation is immediately transformed when viewed with a heart filled with gratitude.
In my own life, it has made all the difference in the world. I first learned the power of gratitude after the traumatic loss of my mate in a plane crash. After months of feeling despondent and close to despair, I was drawn to read the ancient wisdom where I learned that my life had meaning and purpose. As I began to feel gratitude, my whole life changed. First, my perspective shifted. Then I started to feel positive and empowered to begin again. Suddenly, instead of my life ending, it was a whole new beginning.
Shortly after that, I was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and given six to nine months to live. As I continued to practice gratitude, I felt the disease being flushed from my body and my cells being flooded with life and vitality. I later learned that feelings of gratitude release positive endorphins throughout the body, creating health.
Gratitude not only heals, it rejuvenates the body. If you doubt this for a moment, just take a look at someone’s face that has been ravaged by years of resentment. They will look drawn and haggard. Then look at someone who has lived their life in gratitude. They will be radiant with health and aliveness.
The key to a happy, healthy, successful life is gratitude. It uplifts us and sustains and draws to us what we want. Just as I did three months ago on a morning hike, when we focus on what we want with gratitude, we draw it to us. We become a magnet for our good.
When we give gratitude to life, life gives back to us. When we feel grateful, people, as well as the abundance of the universe, are drawn to us. If you have money problems and you find a penny, feel gratitude with great intensity, and you will draw more money to you.
When we give thanks for the situations and events in our life that are challenging, knowing that we are being blessed with wisdom from this experience, the very act of gratitude transforms the negative experience into a positive one. When we express gratitude, we draw to us people and situations to be grateful for. That is the magic of gratitude.
Gratitude fills our hearts with gladness and allows us to see the truth, empowering us to make the right decisions and take appropriate actions. With a grateful heart, we can see the best in every situation and everyone we meet, and bring out their best.
Gratitude is also a gateway to the Divine. A grateful heart is an open heart and continually lifts us higher until we connect with the Divine.
A few years ago, I took a trip to Mt. Shasta in Northern California in a desire to come into deeper communion with my higher self. During the long hours of driving, I placed my attention on my higher self with love and gratitude. Hour after hour, I raised my focus to just above my head, sending love and gratitude to this beloved part of myself for gently guiding and protecting me moment by moment, day after day.
In the last hour of the trip as I was entering the beautiful pine forests surrounding Mt. Shasta, I felt my higher self descend and wrap her loving arms around me. As this presence enveloped me, I felt totally loved. It wasn’t an intellectual idea; it was kinesthetic. I could actually feel every cell of my body being enfolded in love. Feelings of bliss washed over me, totally complete in this sacred union. I knew I was in the arms of the beloved.
In that moment, I understood what all the mystics have said down through the ages, that we are never alone. We are all connected with the Divine. Any thought that we are separate is an illusion. Love and gratitude reveal the connection.
This state of communion was the most glorious state I had ever experienced. During the night when I would awaken, I would immediately raise my focus to see if this presence was still there. Of course it was, and I would fall contentedly back to sleep.
As this state of communion continued, I found myself thinking that I had to hurry up to be somewhere. I would hear in my ear, “Slow down and be on time.” This was very different from my usual way of hurrying to keep up with my schedule. But as I relaxed into this new way of being and allowed myself to be gently guided. I found that I always arrived at the right place at the right time. Life unfolded in an easy, effortless, magical way, filled with wonderful synchronistic events. It was like leading a charmed life with everything I needed brought to me. My conscious choice to send continual love and gratitude to my higher self was the key that opened the door.
It is always our choice how we want to live our lives. By choosing to maintain an attitude of gratitude, we are assured of living a happy, healthy, successful life.
