HAPPY OR GRATEFUL?

If you recall, four short months ago people were sick and tired of the snow.

I read back then that we need the cold weather, so we are grateful for the upcoming warmth and sunlight. The report said that if the weather seldom changes, we lose our appreciation for improvements. Our bone-chilling days of winter were actually, in large part, the reason we enjoyed the balmy days of spring.

Today I was watching a TED Talk on "Gratefulness", when the speaker asked an interesting question. "What is the connection between happiness and gratefulness"? I was on the treadmill so I couldn't stop to think about an answer, so I let him continue.

"Many people would say, well, that's a very easy answer. When you are happy, you are grateful. But think again. Is it really the happy people that are grateful? We all know quite a number of people who have everything that it would take to be happy, and they are not happy, because they want something else or they want more of the same. And we all know people who have lots of misfortune, misfortune that we ourselves would not want to have, and they are deeply happy. They radiate happiness. You are surprised. Why? Because they are grateful."

"So it is not happiness that makes us grateful. It's gratefulness that makes us happy. Chuck Swindoll says we mush choose to have an "Attitude of Gratitude" each day. He writes, "Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do." 

"The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it."

And so it is ... we are in charge of our attitudes. And when we choose to be grateful, it can change our world. 

***************

We were GRATEFUL and HAPPY to spend today with Moses.

To view my post from last March click HERE. 

To view the TED Talk on "Gratefulness" click HERE.