Gratitude of Spirit, Part 1

Gratitude Defined

Currently a riot of voices hawks in all available media resources the benefits of the attitude of gratitude. So enthusiastic is the hawking that it might be difficult to hear a different voice offering a different perspective of gratitude.

The popular perspective hawked in media is a psychological one. It's a theme of Positive Psychology. As such it is mind-based; that is, it is based on our self-talk and mental images. 

The  perspective I offer here is spirit-centered. In my view, our emotions are characteristics of our spirit (that which makes alive) rather than our minds (our cognitive function). So, gratitude as an emotion rather than an attitude is primarily a thumological rather than psychological concern.

How Gratitude Feels

Gratitude radiates as warmth outward from the center of our chest, our heart. It is our spirit's full-bodied pleasure of a desire fulfilled and a need relieved that we could not fulfill for ourselves. 

The desire fulfilled could be as simple as an itch on our back that we could not scratch ourselves that someone scratched for us and relieved the need. It could be a flat tire changed, a bill paid, a meal provided, an organ donated, CPR provided, or any other need met that we could not meet for ourselves.

Gratitude is our spirit's response of relief due to the fact that it continues to be in us, giving us life.

Gratitude of spirit can inspire a sigh of relief, tears of heart-felt gladness, a beaming smile, a happy dance, hugs, and verbal expressions of "Thank you!", "Thank you so much!", "You saved my life!", or "How can I ever repay you!" 

Mild to Intense Gratitude

Depending on the desire fulfilled and need met, our gratitude can range from being mild to intense. Our spirit's response to having an itch scratched might well be milder in comparison to being revived by CPR.

Acute and Chronic Gratitude

Our gratitude can arise immediately, even as our need is being met. It can also dissipate as quickly if something unpleasant intervenes. 

With a heighten awareness of how much we depend on a multitude of interconnected living beings to sustain our lives, it is at least possible for us to experience an ongoing feeling of gratitude.

Part 2 will discuss mind- and experience-based, acute and chronic, and life-denying and life-affirming gratitude

Gratitude as a Mental Narcotic

Could it be that the attitude of gratitude so popular these days is a recipe for compliance and supporting the status quo?

The attitude of gratitude directs us to focus on what we have and what is going well. It says we should feel grateful for what we have and what's going well. It promises us that when we focus on what's right with our life and feel gratitude for it, we'll be better human beings and much happier too. It even has scientific evidence to support its claims. 

Question: Is this not a sugar-coated form of, "Shut up, stop complaining, and be grateful for what you have"?

Think about it. If our roof is leaking, do we ignore it and look at all the roof that is not leaking and feel grateful that so much of our roof is just fine? No. We attend to the leak. We might feel irritated and even cuss about that leak. We then do something to fix it. Afterwards, we might feel grateful that the leak is fixed.

If we break our leg, do we ignore it and look at all of our other unbroken bones and give thanks for them? No. We do something about the broken bone. We feel grateful when the cast comes off and we're healthy again.

If we're in an abusive relationship at home or work do we ignore the abuse, attend to everything that's going well and feel grateful? Too often we do. 

We would do well to save our gratitude for later, after we have changed our situation and moved on with a better life. 

Too often the attitude of gratitude teaching directs us to ignore our problems and injustices, count our blessings, and give thanks for everything that isn't a problem. When we do so, it promises that we'll feel much better.

Guess what? It often works. We do often feel much better when we ignore what's harmful, attend to what's going well, count our blessings, and feel grateful. It's a mental narcotic.

This approach to living is fine if we want to be mentally and emotionally anesthetized to genuine problems and injustices that we face in life so that we can endure them rather than rise up and make a better life for ourselves.

Personally, I'm going for actually living a better life rather than anesthetizing myself, complying, and maintaining the status quo.