Effective Gratitude and Everlasting Happiness
cc licensed flickr photo shared by Darwin Bell
I just read an email on effective vs ineffective gratitude, and it really resonated with me.
Basically ineffective gratitude is gratitude for external things that can, and often do, change.
Ineffective gratitude may be things like:
- My job
- My relationships
- My health
- My house
- My finances
These things all change, and what makes them “ineffective” is that when you are grateful for them you can’t help but come from a place of lack. When you are grateful for these transient things you can help but tell the universe that you are not grateful when you don’t have those things.
If you want to take your gratitude practice to the next level and really start experiencing some amazing shifts in your life, then start being grateful for those things that are not transient, start being grateful for those things that are more permanent.
Some examples of effective gratitude include:
- The miracle of life
- The earth
- The universe
- The sun
- Consciousness
- All that is
Gratitude for these everlasting things is like a leap in perception. When you start becoming grateful for all that is you start to become gratitude itself, you embody gratitude because it cannot leave you. You effectively have the mindset of gratitude all the time.
Notice how ineffective gratitude centers around things that are yours while effective gratitude centers around things that are you and also so much more than you. Ineffective gratitude is much more like a transient feeling or emotion, it will come and go and there is nothing wrong with that. But effective gratitude is like a mindset, it stays with you for much longer it becomes who you are.
When we have a mindset for gratitude our whole reality starts to change around us, we find ourselves much more at peace with the world, much more happy no matter what happens to us. With a mindset of gratitude we start to become happy all the time we can’t really help it, what we are grateful for can’t be taken away from us, its everlasting, and so is our happiness.
Maybe you find everlasting happiness in everlasting gratitude.
-W 
Wayne.. thanks for sharing!! I always love the way my perspectives shift a bit after reading your blogs. How are you? I miss our Wednesday nights!! Take care my friend..
Wayne.. thanks for sharing!! I always love the way my perspectives shift a bit after reading your blogs. How are you? I miss our Wednesday nights!! Take care my friend..
This is exactly what I felt yesterday, when I felt an unending gratitude for Erik in my life. My insides asked the question, "But what will you do when he's not here." I then got to call him and talk to him about it. About what my lack was that I was putting into him. He reminded me of his favorite quote and said, "'That which can be named is not the tao,' what you are 'lacking' has a name… don't seek out the name, accept the tao." Thank you for these posts (and I thank the universe for the beautiful expression that is Wayne and for its continued ability to put beautiful people into my life).
Happiness is a state of mind that really depends how we see the situations in our lives each day. you can have all the riches in the world but still see it as a lonely place.’-:
true happiness can be difficult to achieve, you can be rich but still not be truly happy -”*