Do you practice gratitude every day, whether that be by writing it down in a journal or by taking moments in your day to mentally note what you are grateful for? It’s a beautiful practice, and I highly recommend it. But do you still sometimes just not feel completely lit up?
I practice gratitude every day, and no I don’t write them down in a journal every day either, but there are many times I stop and savour a moment, or fully take in a revelation on something in my life and I realise I am blessed. Sometimes it’s a really conscious process and needing to get myself into gratitude when I feel angry or disappointed or sad or upset about something in my life. The thoughts that occupy your mind when in those emotional states can be a spiral of destruction and kicking yourself out of it by reflecting on what you have to be grateful for stops those thoughts in their tracks and get you out of your head, gets you to take a deep breath and get into your heart. When you are truly committed to that feeling of gratitude for what you have in that moment, anger, hate, sadness can’t exist at the same time.
But gratitude is such an introverted practice, don’t you think? And I know that it has its benefits. We can be so externally seeking a lot of the time. We are constantly bombarded with social media and advertising and other things to help us feel something, or with other people telling us what we need and what we should do, or what that voice in our head is telling us which is often the ego and coming from a place of fear. Gratitude is a great way of getting centred and in touch with our own guidance. Well that’s my experience with gratitude anyway. It fuels you from within. It’s internal and internally fuelling. It’s introverted. It doesn’t rely or depend on anyone else. The only connection is with you and a greater energy source. And there is magic in that.
Maybe because I spend so much time in an introverted state, if I’m to be totally honest, gratitude just doesn’t completely fill me up. I often feel like there is still something missing. I use to think that maybe I wasn’t doing gratitude correctly. That maybe I wasn’t grateful enough for those things in my life. But I was talking to a friend the other day and that, together with a few other situations in my life recently, something started to make sense. I saw a thread. And it’s all to do with appreciation and acknowledgement.
When someone tells you, quite unexpectedly, that you are appreciated and that they acknowledge something in you that has made things better, more wonderful, easier or less painful it makes you feel connected. There’s a sense that you matter. That you are not alone, that you are heard, seen, appreciated and acknowledged. That there is something unique about you, in your essence that is being appreciated. And though praise and compliments can boarder on ego fueling self importance, I think there can be an aspect of appreciation and acknowledgement that can be centering, grounding and fulfilling. Appreciation also probably boarders on acts of kindness, which I think we can all agree needs to become a lot more prevalent in the world. But I think appreciation and acknowledgement can be much deeper and more spiritual than that too.
To see someone, to really see someone, to really hear them, to really be touched by someone else’s presence, to acknowledge someone else, is really at its essence the meaning of namaste – the light in me sees and acknowledges the light in you. The thing about appreciation is it’s dependent on someone else. It’s extroverted. It externally fuels us. It comes as a result of something outside of ourselves. And that’s where the connection comes in. There is an energetic connection to another person and I think a lot of people don’t feel that enough. I feel that there a lot of people who feel grateful for their life and probably have a lot to be grateful for but still sad and disconnected because the don’t feel understood, not appreciated and not belonging to anyone and not important to someone.
When we argue with someone, when we raise our voices, it’s usually because we don’t feel appreciated or that person doesn’t understand you. The moment you feel heard, seen, appreciated and acknowledged so many feelings drop away. I know for me anyway, I feel connected and much more centred.
The difficulty with feeling appreciated is in the beauty of it connecting us to someone else. It requires someone to acknowledge and appreciate us. And those words aren’t usually forthcoming in conversations and encounters with people, active kindness doesn’t play out in our lives all the time. So I’m convinced that to feel appreciated in life we have to depend on the Universal Law of Attraction, we need to appreciate more people. Acknowledge more people in our lives. And not just our bestie and our family, but those people you share work space with, those people who do something that make a difference in your life. Is there a person entangled in something you are grateful for everyday? By appreciating and acknowledging people more, you are bound to receive it back in return.
I challenge you to think about who you appreciate. Who do you need to express appreciation to? What is that unique essence in someone you need to acknowledge? Don’t think for a second that person actually realises they are appreciated. Do you have a good awareness of what people appreciate in you? Have you ever had your day lifted when someone went out of there way to tell you they actually like your company, your smile, your contribution to a situation, your support, that in some way you matter to them? Did it fill you with more purpose? Did you feel good about yourself for a moment? Did you get to hush that negative self-talking ego for a considerable amount of time because you had some great external evidence to refute its pestering? Did it help you break down barriers you have put up to keep to yourself? Did it make you more interested in the people around you?
So the second part of the challenge, is most important and it is to actually tell those people. Do it as often as you can. Make it as religious as gratitude, and I think all our lives will change.
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave comments here or on Facebook. Let me know who you appreciated or who appreciated you.
I’d love for you to hit subscribe on the podcast app on your iDevice or on the main podcast page here on my website so you can keep up to date with more episodes as they go live.
Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @naomidaveson
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Naomi.Daveson
You can always reach out to me on Facebook or via email at naomi@naomidaveson.com
You can read more about my Mind Body Soul coaching here.
The post 5: Appreciation vs Gratitude appeared first on Naomi Daveson.
