Friday 11 December 2015

Grace & Gratitude

Dear friends,

A drop of water on a hot plate takes little time to disappear. It makes some noise & it evaporates.

Gratitude in our life seems to disappear even faster. We seem to forget how much we have grown, how much we have received. The mind seeks more & more. And in every wanting of more & more, it forgets the past very easily. So gratitude rises in everybody, but disappears very soon. Today we cannot say that no one is grateful. Everyone is grateful but for the moment & then it is finished.

Grace is that gratitude which can remain all the time. If gratitude remains around a year like the evergreen, you can call it grace. It is like the snow in the Himalayas that stays throughout the year. It doesn’t just fall & disappear. Whatever falls on the highest peak stays.

When there is gratitude, complaints disappear. When complaints arise, gratitude disappears, gratefulness disappears. When there is a complaint in the mind there is discontent, frustration, dejection, depression. All then follows. If you are not grateful, if there is no gratefulness, no gratitude, then you will start complaining. You will find fault. Even if there is none, you will try to see it, find it. Your mind will do it for u. You won’t even need to try hard. Your mind can easily pick it up. So and so person did not smile at me & so on… Or he smiled but did not show his teeth. It was less than a full smile. Always start your day with gratitude. Quite often we take our blessings for granted. We forget to appreciate the things, people we already have in our life and we strive for other things which we don’t have in our life. By doing so we don’t enjoy the beautiful people or things we already have in our life. So take a moment off from your busy schedule every day to be thankful for the countless blessings that God has showered on each one of us. You will notice that it will bring you so much of peace when you know that you already have so many blessings in your life.

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” — William Arthur Ward. If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.

The fastest way to bring grace into your life

· List 5 things you are grateful for when you first wake up in the morning

· If a bad thought comes into your head, replace it with a thought of gratitude

· Before you go to sleep, again list 5 things you are grateful for

· Find things to be grateful for in your friends, co-workers and bosses and let them know

Cultivating Gratitude

I once travelled with a friend who had great insight into human nature. She said, “Wherever you go you can find something to complain about.” If we travel, we can complain about lumpy beds and crowded airports. But if we stay home, we can complain that we never go anywhere interesting and there’s never anything good on television. In Japanese language there is a term -- on. The meaning of ‘on’ often includes a sense of gratitude combined with a desire to repay others for what we have been given. It’s not just that we feel grateful, or that we express our gratitude, but that we actually experience a sincere desire to give something back. We might think of it as appreciation that stimulates a sense of obligation. Not an externally imposed obligation, but a sense of obligation that arises naturally within us as we recognize how we have been supported and cared for by others. So how do we go from a complaining life to one which cultivates, and is grounded in, a spirit of on – a spirit of Thanksgiving? Just create an authentic life of gratitude and lead a clear and straightforward life! Be grateful to God, grateful to your parents and to all those who have contributed in making you what you are today! Be grateful to mother earth and the nature! It’s time to repay back, to return back in same good spirit as it came to you.
Till we chat again be good to your environment! God bless u all!









    Dr. Suvarna Deshpande

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