When We Care to Care We Experience… Gratitude

We are big on gratitude. There’s a lot of buzz about how gratitude can do many beneficial things. Our big aha was that gratitude could actually be used in tangible ways to transform the planet to a place of greater loving, compassion and caring. However, we realized that great ideas are worth very little without tangible actions to put them into practice.

One of the things we realized early on was that these actions needed to be simple and easy to do, or people wouldn’t put them to use. So we looked for things anyone could do without disrupting their busy day that would both provide them with a benefit and would move them to a greater awareness of what a powerful force gratitude can be.

As we pursued this, we recognized that when we were created we were hard-wired with the ability and capacity to care. Through the expression of this caring—with our gentle touch, expression, voice, smile, hug or even an action as simple as pausing to genuinely listen with the intent to really hear and understand—we can literally heal others.

If you don’t believe us, go out and hug someone. Not a “Hey baby, let’s party” kind of hug. A genuine, sincere, innocent physical contact with someone.

If that’s too risky for you, try smiling at the people you see as you walk along the street or shop in the grocery store. Why not? Give it a try! Then, after you get over that initial wave of “self-consciousness” see how you feel. If you actually do this, you will get a sense of how gratitude is connected to caring and why we are so excited about encouraging expressions of gratitude.

Here are some of the signposts along the road to developing an attitude of gratitude:

• Acknowledging the gift that you are

• Understanding—or at least entertaining the idea—that you were born as a perfect gift

• Knowing that you are capable of impacting the Hearts of others and in turn impacting this world

• Being genuine and expressing from your more authentic, loving self

• Recognizing that you are being kind, loving and compassionate to yourself and others.

• Realizing that it’s your privilege, right and choice to share your gift

• Living the joy of having someone receive the gift that you are

Chances are that you are experiencing some or all of these to a certain extent already. However, if you are willing to step forward and test this little idea of smiling at folks throughout the day, we predict it soon will be all you can do to hold back from sharing your gratitude with others.

This article was adapted from The Letters that Moved the World, by Cori Ashley & Jason Loken. It is a book dedicated to the idea that gratitude can be used as a tool for transforming the consciousness of the planet. For more on gratitude and the book, visit www.globalshifts.org