Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The practice of gratitude


November is finally here!

Regardless of the economical challenges that every family have felt during the recession I think we still have a lot to be grateful for.
Some say that this crisis is a wake up call for the people in the US to the problems that most people in the world have suffered for generations.

There is no question that this land is rich, productive and abundant to the point that as a culture we have wasted many resources. Nevertheless, the positive side of any crisis is that there is always time to learn and adapt and humans are wonderful at that.


I invite you to explore a little deeper the concept of gratitude and hopefully by the end of this blog you will be compelled to practice it more frequently.

The dictionary mentions that gratitude is to be conscious of the benefit received. The awareness make us thankful, pleased, and glad. These positive feelings promote a sense of well-being and a desire to help others.

David DeSteno, an associate professor of psychology at Northeastern University. suggests that feeling thankful can lead to greater social good as people are more inclined to give back—and not only to the person who helped them.
DeSteno observed the behavior of two groups after one was helped by an outsider. The gratitude that this group felt might have been one of the reasons why when it came to offer assistance or raised resources for a cause they had a better response to the request than the group that didn't have any help.

At a deeper level gratitude helps us to realize all the events that need to happen in order to be the beneficiary of a "thankful moment."

Let's say tomorrow you go to the store to buy clementines (tangerines), meanwhile you wait to pay for them, you realize that having the clementines in your hands is the result of the farmer cultivating the soil in a proper way, plus the drivers that bring them to the distribution center, the store manager who assigns a fair price, the cashier who will put them carefully into your paper bag to avoid being smashed on the way home; all that so when you wash and eat them you will be happy and grateful for a great buy!


It reminds me of the Vedic God Indra, the king of the Gods whose net hangs over his palace on Mount Meru. Indra's net has a multifaceted jewel at each vertex, and each jewel is reflected in all of the other jewels as a symbol of interconnectedness in the Universe.

Our actions for small that they might seem at a certain moment, can have great repercussions in the well-being of others.

Let's practice during this month gratefulness for all the little joys in life, remember what is really important can not be bought with money...

Shanti,
Rocio

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