Gratitude --  Week 14

Gratitude celebrates our connections with other beings and our capacity to offer mutual support. It is a form of openness and generosity that strengthens relationships and heals tension, resentment and anger. Gratitude calls us to strip away unnecessary complexities, and to be simple and natural with each other. It brings peace and harmony.  Gratitude is grounded in the wisdom which accepts that we are neither independent nor self-sufficient, but part of an extraordinary continuum of events and beings on this planet. It encourages us to welcome reality, rather than to fight it – both what seems good, and what seems bad. Learning to appreciate every single thing that happens as a potential source of insight and growth is one of the key ingredients for a happy life. 16G for Life book

Topics for discussion:  (From 16-G PDF)

1.    Gratitude celebrates our connections with others and our capacity to offer mutual support. When was the last time you received a heartfelt ‘thank you’?
How did you feel?

2.    Look around you right now. What can you see?
What can you hear?
What can you smell?
What can you touch or feel?
What are you grateful for in this moment?

How can you express your gratitude?

 .... or whatever is alive in you.  

 Words of Wisdom

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

~ Albert Schweitzer 

"The way we relate with others."   (review)

Every time we cherish others we are cherishing ourselves.

Our happiness depends on the happiness of others.

So to strengthen our relationships with the people around us is one of the most direct and effective routes to a happy life.

Whether we like it or not, we cannot get by on our own but it is easy to forget the people behind the scenes who make our existence possible.

Whether it is the farmer who grew the seed for our bread, the engineer who brought the water for our tea, or the van driver who supplied the shop: our connections with others are endless.

Our tendency to overlook or ignore these infinite connections is unrealistic and a major obstacle to happiness.

There is a deep rooted inclination to see ourselves as separate individuals who have worked hard to be ‘self-sufficient’ and ‘independent’.

The result is often isolation, loneliness, anxiety and depression.

The happiest people are those who acknowledge their interconnection and who nurture warm and appreciative relationships.

ref:  Compassion And Wisdom.org

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