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| Bird of Paradise Flower |
In thanksgiving for life, I pledge to overcome the illusion of
entitlement
by reminding myself that everything is gift and thus to live gratefully
"A Pledge for Grateful Living" David Stendl-Rast
Have you ever been envious
of another person, of their success in life or that they have more of something
than you have? I have and it can become insidious and creep into our daily
lives without us realising it. We might start putting someone else down or
criticising them in some way, finding fault with them. But underneath the real
reason is envy. We want what they have and find it difficult to be glad for
them. Recognise that feeling? I
do. Gratitude can counter this and help us to be thankful for what we have and
to be glad when friends and family succeed.
In Sonja Lyubomirsky’s “The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the
Life You Want” she talks about ways to express gratitude. One of
these is writing a letter to someone who has had a great impact your life. When she asked a class of undergraduate students to
write such a letter of gratitude she found that her students described it as a
poignant and moving exercise. One of her students spoke of the process, “I felt
overwhelmed with a sense of happiness. I noticed I was typing very quickly,
probably because it was very easy for me to express gratitude that was long
overdue. As I was typing, I could feel my heart beating faster and faster … towards
the end of the letter, as I reread what I had already written, I began to get
teary-eyed and even a little bit choked up. I think my expressing gratitude to
my mom overwhelmed me to such a point that tears streamed down my face.”
Ramnath Subramanian
recounts his own experience of envy in “Celebrating Another’s Success: An
Antidote to Envy”. Being envious of his friend’s success started to make him
bitter and took away his own happiness.
Today: I recognise how easily
I can become envious of others. I choose to celebrate all that I have. As I
start listing them in a spider like diagram the list grows and grows. With Brother David I celebrate this day, this
unique day,
‘A
Good Day’ video on You Tube - http://www.gratefulness.org/brotherdavid/a-good-day.htm
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