The Power of Gratitude

Well … do you feel that there is a lot going on right now – in the UK and around the world? That life is speeding up; pushing you forward, seemingly chaotic, feeling unsure about the future? Perhaps you feel lost and struggling right now. Alternatively, you may feel alive and uplifted, knowing who you are and your role in life.

Either way, there is one thing guaranteed to support us each day – gratitude. Meister Eckhart, the great 14th C. Christian mystic, wrote, “The only two words we need to say in prayer are ‘thank you’”. Pause a moment … does this resonate with you?

Charles Fillmore, Unity co-founder, said: “Gratitude is a great mind magnet and when it is expressed from the spiritual standpoint it is powerfully augmented.”
What is this spiritual standpoint? It is the understanding and acceptance that, with God as our Source and supply, our good is here for us, even if we cannot see it, ready to fill our awareness and experience in a way that we can see and use.

Yet appreciation, gratitude, is more than mere words – it is a feeling. It is this feeling that is like a mighty magnet, drawing even more of universal good into our experience. Richard and Mary-Alice Jafolla write in Unity’s The Quest, “Feelings are the catalyst and activate the powers which make the changes and do the work.”

Our part is to lift our thoughts away from the problems, demands, fears and distractions of this world, to connect with a deeper, abiding knowing of, as Jesus said, ‘The Father and I are one.’ From a deepening sense of Oneness, we are led forward together.
Gratitude helps us do this. We can always find at least one thing to feel grateful about. This feeling of gratitude begins to shift our minds and hearts to a deeper faith and trust. There is good here. This enables us to see more goodness around us, and experience within us.

Then, as we make this inner shift, we are able to support others and help them know that there is good here and even more good than we can imagine. Especially when we work together.

Right now on planet earth, we are being called to be better stewards of our planet. To take care of ourselves, each other, our climate and the bio-diversity that is so important in a balanced and healthy world. Yet we can only really do this when we feel connected to something greater than ourselves that is uniting us and working through all of us.

Gratitude will do this. Let us find something different to be grateful for every day through November. Feel into the joy and sense of appreciation and upliftment this encourages. Perhaps journal, with art work, your blessings and joy. (Join our class.) Watch for more things to be grateful for in your life, and know you are being the catalyst for someone else to feel grateful and experience their good.

Together, as we share our abilities, time and gifts with others around us, we will find a way to help bring back balance and harmony in our world. We will support each other in using less, helping more and finding so much joy in doing this, that our gratitude overflows.

This is how life is changed. Let us be the change we wish to seek. Let gratitude be the tool to get us there.