Marcia Perkins-Reed is a nationally known motivational speaker and seminar presenter. She brings to her audiences a combination of 25 years of varied business experience, degrees in psychology and law, ten years in New Thought, and the success and fulfillment experienced by her and her consulting clients. Marcia is the author of the book WHEN 9 TO 5 ISN’T ENOUGH: A GUIDE TO FINDING FULFILLMENT AT WORK.
Gratitude isn’t always easy to invoke. If our circumstances are unpleasant, or if we are concentrating more on what we lack than on what we have, it may seem ludicrous to try to find something to be thankful for. But gratitude comprises more than simply being thankful. Thankfulness is directed toward a specific object or event that has just happened, as in “I am thankful for the new sweater I just received.” Gratitude, by contrast, is a lifestyle—a way of living. People who live in a state of gratitude have developed the ability to embody, moment by moment, a sense of wonder and contentment with their lives just as they are. And as they do so, they paradoxically seem to attract more and more blessings into their lives in the form of money, fulfilling jobs, deeply satisfying personal relationships, and other things that they desire.
Expressing thankfulness on a regular basis can lead to a gratitude-filled lifestyle. I have developed a practice, every time something good happens—whether expected or not!—to say (to myself or out loud): “Thank you, God!” But as you do this regularly, you will begin to notice yourself changing. Things that used to bother you don’t bother you as much anymore. You see someone less fortunate than yourself, and as you thank your Source for what you have, you also reach out to help the other person and to give him or her what you can of yourself and your substance.
Practicing gratitude is simply recognizing that there is infinite substance all around us, throughout the universe and beyond. And we must, as Eric Butterworth urges us in his book Spiritual Economics, “Get it into your consciousness that you live in substance as a fish lives in water.” We can never lack substance, even if we lose all of our assets in a financial crisis—for substance is the nonmaterial essence of the things we see. So we can always invoke gratitude for the invisible substance around us, knowing that as we do so, we will draw its manifestation to us.
Gratitude leads to two delightful results in our lives. First, it creates a deep sense of joy. It is said that if we pursue happiness as our goal, it will elude us. The same is true of joy: If we seek it for its own sake, we will not find it. But if we practice gratitude—living in a consciousness of contentment, being thankful for what we have (even if it is meager), and cultivating inner peace through times of quiet meditation—we will find that joy appears spontaneously.
The second result of gratitude is a personal experience of abundance and prosperity. It is an accepted principle that “what we focus on expands.” If we spend most of our time thinking about what we don’t have, or how we wish our life was different, or what we just lost, that will expand—and we will have more loss, more lack, and more discontent with our current situation. If, on the other hand, we focus on what we have—food on the table, friends and/or family who care about us, the sunshine outside—that, too, will expand. The energy of gratitude in our lives draws more and more of the things we desire to us, almost by magic.
So begin your practice of gratitude today. As you awaken, immediately ask yourself, “What can I be thankful for today?” Spend time in the silence of your own inner self, appreciating the wonder of who you are. And remember to always acknowledge the good that comes to you.
