Don’t Forget to Express Gratitude

Saying ‘Thanks’ has become a habit for us. But gratitude, thankfulness, and being indebted are beautiful words with a deep meaning. All of us experience these emotions in our daily life. When we use these words along with the deep emotions they represent, we not only elevate our personality but also give happiness to others.

Thankfulness is a feeling that is felt between two people when one of them helps another during times of need. Gratitude is felt, especially when the receiver finds the help valuable. Polite behaviour elicits the emotion of benevolence. The emotion we feel is expressed through our perspective of others and our behaviour towards them. Thankfulness is not just about being transactional and paying back for a favour. Similarly, the feeling of benevolence nudges us to cooperate with one another and teaches the art of understanding others. We should always be honest when we express our gratitude. The emotion can be expressed by simply saying ‘Thanks.’ Very often, people fail to acknowledge and express gratitude to their near and dear ones, like a spouse, family members, friends, etc. Gratitude plays a vital role in determining the character and personality of an individual. But many people miss out on developing this trait because of their ego.

Once we begin to experience gratitude, our entire perspective toward life gets transformed. If we cultivate these qualities of gratitude and humility, our behaviour automatically stands corrected.

One of the main hurdles in the path of self-progress is that an individual wants to take credit for all the good things in life and blame others for all that goes wrong. This happens because a person does not want to be unsuccessful or a failure. He always blames the circumstances and runs away from his objectives.

We should ask ourselves – ‘If I take responsibility for my success, then why am I not responsible for my failure?’ In fact, we should give credit to others for our successes and take responsibility for their weaknesses ourselves. Acknowledging others’ roles in our success is a sign of graciousness. This is possible only when we feel secure about ourselves. We begin to think that we don’t need anyone’s help and take pride in feeling like this because it depicts our strength. It is our negative attitude that hinders the path of positive things that could come our way. Some people experience more attitude of gratitude than others.

The connection between spirituality and gratitude was revealed in a recent study. The study shows that spirituality enhances a person’s ability to feel thankful. People who contribute their time and effort to serving people are observed to be more capable of expressing gratitude in all walks of life.

Gratitude is looked upon with similar importance in all religions. It is well known that in all religions, devotees express their gratitude towards God through worship. That is why gratitude is recognized as a noble trait in scriptures of all faiths and traditions. This is the reason gratitude is considered a universally accepted virtue.

Several studies have shown that those who have an attitude of gratitude exhibit higher levels of spiritual bliss. People who are thankful are typically happy, energetic, and satisfied in their personal and social relationships. In addition, their ability to control their surroundings, achieve personal progress, attain life goals, and accept themselves is known to be quite high. Grateful people have many positive methods of handling various challenges in life. They are more likely to get support and cooperation from others. They do not shirk responsibility and have a positive strategy to solve the problems without blaming others or losing focus on their goals.

Grateful people enjoy sound sleep because they do not think of negative thoughts and focus on positive thoughts before sleeping. Many studies have shown that grateful people are generally happy and do not succumb to depression and stress. Emotions play an important role in the well-being of a person. Gratitude and well-being are tightly coupled with each other.

Let us once remember all those people who have positively influenced our lives. It could include parents, teachers, and others who have spent significant time shaping our lives. It might appear that it was their duty to do what they did. But it is not so; they willingly spent their time, money, and resources purely out of their love and not for any gain.

At any point in life, if a person realizes the huge number of people who have strived to make him the person he has become, it may not be too late to express his gratitude to them. Gratitude is not like being indebted, whereas both seem to be expressed after receiving help. Indebtedness comes into the picture when the receiver knows that he must payback for what he has received. On the other hand, gratitude propels you to find your benefactor and improve your relationship with him.

Expressing gratitude is a way of strengthening your relationships. In an experiment, it was observed that when the jewellery store called their customers and thanked them, there was a 30% increase in sales. Another study showed that those waiters who wrote thanks on the bill received better tips in the restaurant.

Expressing gratitude symbolizes our decency, humility, and absence of egoism. So, whoever has done something, whenever in our life in whatever small or big way – go ahead and thank them.

Akhand Jyoti Magazine 2022 May-June