Gratitude with an attitude?

What the hell does that mean?

Well, today I think my life changed for the better.  Why? Because I was ready for a message.

What was the message?

I needed to be more appreciative of all the great things in my life-but more than that, appreciative for life itself….

My Gratitude Message

Where did the message come from?

Probably from God.  No, not a burning bush Moses type moment, but a sense of too many things pointing to this message for me NOT to get the picture.  It was the equivalent of a Billboard  300 feet long on I 285 surrounded with millions of 100 watt LED lights flashing my name-(ok maybe I exaggerate a little here.  Blogger’s license…)

What was this set of events?

• I first read this article of Melinda Beck’s at the Wall Street Journal- a nice article on the potential health benefits of gratitude.
• My son told me how much he appreciated my putting together a Father/Son outing before his wedding next month.
• A sunrise during that outing was so beautiful, that I can still see it when I close my eyes.
• A men’s group I belong to watched a video by Rob Bell  “Tomato”-not really anything to do with tomatoes, as much as reminding us that our time on earth is limited, and we can make a choice-in good or bad circumstances to be a positive person dedicated to helping others.
• A cousin and his wife suffered the death of their eldest child.

It hit me, as I was a little stressed over juggling a lot of things recently, that I wasn’t appropriately thankful for all the benefits and blessings that I have received….

None of these things by themselves would have affected me as much as the fact that they all happened in a couple of days.  Maybe it was just a coincidence, but I think  it was a God thing.

Now what exactly do I mean by gratitude.  This is not the same as the Magic Power of Positive Thinking. This is about being more appreciative of your blessings.  The article in the WSJ discusses the fact that those who express appreciation for the large and small in their life, are more healthy and happy.

I am always a little cynical (does that mean not appreciative?) about social health studies, just because there are so many variables in these studies, it makes accuracy difficult, and the possibility of bias to creep in.

But when you think about this kind of study, then who cares if the results are not scientifically accurate?

What are you thankful for?

Do I want to mope around being unappreciative of the great things in my life, such as:

my health,

my wonderful family,

my marriage,

my friends,

my co-workers and staff at my office,

the staff at my hospital facility,

my fellow nurse and personal finance bloggers I am getting to know and learn from,

the staff who help me keep The Millionaire Nurse Blog up and running,

my patients who trust me with their most private secrets, and their medical concerns,

my readers here!

to name just a few….

Research on gratitude

I did a little research myself on gratitude while writing this-to find ways to improve gratitude.  I came across this article on Gratitude by Steve Pavlina, a personal development guru of some note.

He divides gratitude into level one and level two.

Level one gratitude is the type we try to teach our kids, and are the basis for many New Years resolutions.

This would be similar to the list I wrote above, gratitude for others around you, your blessings in life.

He feels level two gratitude is a higher plane of gratitude. This is a gratitude for just being.  Not thankful for any person or thing, but grateful to be alive and able to have feelings.

To be able to laugh or cry, to be able to help others, to be able to  just BE.  Being appreciate of being you does require effort, I don’t think this is necessarily inborn.  We have to practice.

Practice Gratitude

I am starting today, by writing this post.  I plan to continue my efforts daily to be more appreciative of just being, and all the privileges that allows me.

And I hope I show that in how I live my life.  By the dedication to helping others.

Both in my medical practice, my efforts to improve the financial health of nurses, and to better my community.

How ’bout you, Do YOU have gratitude?  And do you show it? How do you practice it?  Do you think it is beneficial?