After taking a look around The Gratitude Log website, I was impressed by its simplicity and decided to give it a try for a couple of weeks to see if it made any difference to my life.
At the beginning of every day, before starting my daily routine of doing whatever the heck I felt like doing, I proceeded to diligently write into my Gratitude Log a few things which I was grateful for.
Some examples included the love and support of family and friends, the many conveniences of living in an affluent, technologically advanced democracy, having a regular income, food and shelter, health etc. I am sure you get the idea.
I could not understand why at the time, but I felt strangely uneasy about writing these things down. Because of this, I quite soon lost interest in using The Gratitude Log and let my new morning routine fall by the wayside.
A few months later, I have an idea why this uneasy feeling might have arisen. Subtly hidden in every specific statement of gratitude is a judgement. If I state that I am grateful for having a certain thing, this implies that I would not be grateful if that thing were taken away. For example, if one morning I woke up to glorious sunshine and wrote that I was grateful for this, it immediately implies that I would not be grateful if it were grey and raining.
My gratitude was conditional. This meant that I was attached to certain conditions. I was following a daily routine of judging certain things more favourable than others. Not only judging, but making writing down these judgements into a daily habit!
As expressed elsewhere on the Happy Cow website, love and happiness are intrinsically unconditional. Love is for no reason. Happiness is for no reason. They are not things that you have to do or to become. They are simply your natural state when you stop listening to thoughts which try to provide you with reasons to be otherwise.
Trying out the Gratitude Log has taught me that true gratitude must also be unconditional. You are not grateful for this or for that. You are not grateful because of this or because of that. You are simply grateful. It is the natural state of your being the moment you drop personal attachment to judgemental thoughts.
Loving for no reason. Happy for no reason. Grateful for no reason. When you let go of your need for any reasons, the chances are you will really feel like doing The Dance!
"When joy has a reason, it is not going to last long. When joy is without any reason, it is going to be there forever." Osho
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