Today I am happy to bring you a piece on Gratitude written by another author: Ocean Robbins. This is a fun article filled with lots of interesting research on the amazing benefits of practicing gratitude. Please go here to read the article: http://www.dailygood.org/view.There is one flaw in the article and it is the very first paragraph. Here is what it says: "Our world is pretty messed up. With all the violence, pollution and crazy things people do, it would be easy to turn into a grouchy old man without being either elderly or male. There's certainly no shortage of justification for disappointment and cynicism."
This is a common misperception about our world. YES there is a lot of ugliness and suffering in our world. But the balance sheet of good versus evil is dramatically weighted on the side of goodness. Each and every single day billions of acts of kindness, caring and generosity are selflessly performed by human beings. The very reason our daily lives continue the way they do is that love is more prevalent on the planet than hate, understanding and compassion are more prevalent than violence.
This is not a trivial point. It matters that we all understand this. When we walk around with the doom and gloom view that the world is a stinking mess, we are less motivated to act from the goodness in ourselves. This negative belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we get clear about the truth of the situation - that love, compassion, thoughtfulness, kindness and caring are happening all around us, every minute of the day, we begin to notice those acts and to contribute more of our own.
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