At the end of 2021, and in our today’s Life Amplifier blog article, I’m overwhelmed by feelings of deep and humble gratitude.
Gratitude, thankfulness or gratefulness, from the Latin word gratus “pleasing, thankful”, is a feeling of appreciation felt by and/or similar positive response shown by the recipient of kindness, gifts, help, favors, or other types of generosity, to the giver of said gifts.
Yes, the past two years have not been easy for many of us, and still, I deeply appreciate all I have and I’m incredible grateful for it. Thankful for my family, friends, life, work, and all of you. It’s wonderful and inspirational being together with you as a part of our new Life Amplifier community. Additionally, I’m also grateful for the many challenges we had to overcome to arrive at where we are today in our respective lives. With more challenges to come, for sure. And that’s good, too. I’m also grateful for the things I don’t have which helps me to enjoy even more so the people and things that fortunately are in my life.
Gratefulness is an emotion that generates a climate of positivity that both reaches inward and extends outward. I’d love to pass it on and share with you my gratitude and appreciation for life in general, and for YOU in particular. Combined with the hope that it might provide strength and an extra dose of joy and happiness to you.
Gratitude starts with noticing the good things in one’s life. For me, just being around my family and good friends makes me feel thankful and glad. I love our joint breakfasts or reading a book together on our family sofa. For others, it might be an outdoor walk to appreciate Mother Earth’s beauty while deeply breathing in and out, or taking a hot shower on a cold winter day, or volunteering and helping people in need. As a rule of thumb, it’s very helpful to focus on what we have, and not on what we miss to move ourselves more into a grateful frame of mind. Perceiving difficult situations as a chance for to grow and evolve does also help.
As gratitude is contagious and spreading it will make it even more impactful, let’s pass it on to others to have it snowballing through as many people’s lives as possible! Sometimes I recommend my coachees, especially when they’re facing tough situations or difficult decisions to take, to write down all the good things they had experienced in the past 2-4 weeks. They’re always surprised about how much goodness has happened. We would then talk about some of these situations and look for causes, patterns, etc. to repeat or magnify them. You could do the same for yourself or for others who are in need of some sunshine in their lives right now.
One of my favorite acts of gratitude is to send “thank yous” to the world around me. This could be verbally, with a thank note, or just a smiley in an email.
THANK YOU my dear friends. I appreciate you a lot and I’m deeply grateful for you.
I wish you, your families, and loved ones enjoyable and peaceful holidays.
Yours,
Andreas (https://andreasvonderheydt.com) Twitter: @avonderheydt