The Importance of Gratitude: The Best High There is 

     Gratitude to me was once only an acquaintance. A relationship I truly did not know how to tend to, and quite frankly, felt inauthentic. Most of my attempts of feeling and expressing gratitude led to me finding myself deep within the sludge of imposter syndrome. if you have to convince yourself of your gratitude you mustn’t truly be grateful… it should be an effortless and natural emotion. Thoughtless—the imposter syndrome narrator would relentlessly go on and on. You’re not actually grateful and you don’t deserve this, you did nothing to actually earn this, and the only thing you feel from this is weird and uncomfortable. Undeserving. blah blah blah All the while having an additional narrator constantly asking the universe why don’t I have this? Why can’t this just happen for me? Why are my circumstances not ideal or not everything I ever dreamed of? Do I not deserve to be happy? Or even worse yet, when what the universe gave me wasn’t enough - this isn’t what I asked for…it’s not enough—I mean, for fucks sake. The entitlement was through the roof. 

     That’s not to say that wanting or asking for more automatically makes a person entitled. But let’s say you’re stranded in a foreign city with zero dollars, and you need $1000 to get home. A stranger empathizes with your situation and kindly pulls all the cash they have in their wallet out and generously hands you $200. You certainly wouldn’t react by saying, “well that certainly isn’t enough, do better” and hand it right back to them, now would you? Any sane and moral human being would be incredibly thankful for such a hefty amount  and would carry on figuring out the remaining $800. So why on earth would you ask the universe or god (or whom or whatever) for any amount of anything, and feel disappointment when only a portion of your request is delivered? You mean to say I have to be patient and work towards attaining my own needs myself?- the entitlement narrator . 

     Imagine that… those two narrators- existing side by side constantly yapping. Creating and building up frustration in the body- Far beyond the capacity of which it could carry. Always wanting more and then once receiving it feeling unworthy or ungrateful. A boiling hot cup impossible to fill because every time something is put into it, it evaporates right out into thin air. 

*I am grateful to have made it out the other end and I can now say I have since built a strong relationship with gratitude. (& maybe I can touch more back on the topic of what that journey has looked like for me another time*)

     The true essence of gratitude is what keeps it all  fluid and keeps it all flowing—and that’s the most mundane part of it. The true essence of gratitude is a high you can get no where else other than in that state of being. It’s one of worthiness, abundance, security, love and lightness. A high that brings peace, harmony, and balance to all of your senses. One that welcomes you back home to your body and heart center. You begin to have a deeper appreciation for every euphoric breath you take. And as you reach the peak of this high, everything seems to finally make sense

   I know what you’re thinking: The best high there is you say? Ha! I’m sure there’s big eye rolls and scoffs coming from those among you who enjoy to dabble in substances (especially in mother nature’s little gifts of intoxicating flowers and fungus. I must admit, it’s a good time). Beyond the dibble-dabble, some of you may also be saying, “well, what about love?”—to that I say good point. 

     The frequency of gratitude is damn near in exact alignment with the frequency of love. Gratitude often serves as a foundation of love, and it sure can beget love. While love often drives action, gratitude is stillness in the present. It is the deep and present appreciation for life itself: the gift of the human experience overall and all that has come with it—yes, even the bad. At its strongest, gratitude will ensue the darkest of days. From the ashes a phoenix will rise with more knowledge, wisdom, resilience, and if she so chooses—a heightened sense of gratitude. Much like love, gratitude is what motivates us to continue on and accomplish more than we’d ever imagine being capable of…it’s our spiritual fuel. 

     The Importance of gratitude lies within the well being of ourselves and the world we call home. Imagine a society completely void of it. what would our world look like? What and whom would we take care of and tend to? How intact would our bodies be? What would our perception of our own realities be? Would we even still exist?

     I ask you to take a brief moment to think about the state of our world and our society right now. Most of us don’t have to think too deeply to come to the disheartening conclusion that much of the collective is starved of love and gratitude. This leads to a wide array of catastrophic symptoms:  misery, damaging self-talk, loss of compassion, excess of greed, the “need” for instant gratification, etc. Which in turn shows up as climate change, pollution, homelessness, addiction, disease, and hunger. The list could go on, but it is not the aim to walk away from this feeling heavy. 

     Despite all of the dark shit going on in the world right now, It is abundantly evident that love still exists all around us. It exists in the text or phone call you get from your friend in the middle of the day just to share something funny. It exists alongside the coastal shores of warm breezy climates and in the beautiful pastel sunset skies cruising down an open Midwest backroad. It exists in the smile and compliment you get from the Goodwill worker who is just happy to have been able to pick up another shift. It’s even in the steamy cup of tea you prepare for yourself when the season change starts to hit. Truly, love is all around us—gratitude is just the pair of glasses we need to put on to be able to see and feel that it is. Once we do that, we begin to embody and become it ourselves, and the ripple effect from then on results in a pandemic to be grateful for.