start monday with gratitude

Often when someone asks you what you're grateful for, you can get tongue-tied; you want to say the right thing, something big, something impressive, and you just end up getting brain freeze.

Here's the thing, though. You can be grateful for the small things, the things that so many people take for granted; the birds chirping in the morning, the warmth and comfort of the bed in which you sleep, the cold water that runs freely from your kitchen tap anytime you wish to have a drink, the abundance and variety of food in your cupboard and fridge, the car/bus/train/bicycle that carries you to work every day, the roof over your head, the love of family and friends…

And you can show gratitude in many different ways too; you can keep a gratitude journal or a gratitude jar and fill it with written notes of what you're grateful for at the end of each day, you can enjoy a gratitude walk, taking in all the beautiful signs and sounds around you... or you can simply express joy…

When you express joy for everything you have in your life, for everything that comes into your life, you’re also expressing gratitude at the same time. For joy and the expression of joy demonstrates just how grateful you are.

Whilst a gratitude journal or jar, or a gratitude walk will remind you to express gratitude, to focus your attention on gratitude, they’re not necessary when you have joy in your heart and in your life. Because when you have joy, you also have gratitude. The two go hand-in-hand. You can’t have gratitude without joy and you can’t have joy without gratitude.

Imagine giving someone a gift, such as a birthday present. Upon opening their gift, their eyes light up, they smile, they give you a hug. In essence they express joy at the gift they have received. Do you doubt, in any way, that they’re grateful for the gift you’ve just given them? Of course not. By simply witnessing the joy in their being you can easily see and easily understand that they are grateful for the gift.

Now imagine giving someone else a gift. Upon opening the gift, they look at you and politely say “thank you” before setting the gift to one side. Are they grateful for the gift you invested time and money finding, just for them? Maybe, maybe not. It’s hard to tell, for certain, whether they’re grateful or not. The words “thank you” can imply gratitude, however, they can also simply imply politeness. You need more information, more confirmation, right?

In both scenarios the receiver of the gift did not express the words “I’m grateful” so how can you instantly tell that the person in the first scenario was grateful and, yet, you’re left wondering, perhaps even doubting, whether the person in the second scenario is grateful.

The reason is that the person in the first scenario expressed joy through their body language, through their actions, and we can intrinsically associate the emotion of joy with gratitude.

The person in the second scenario may be truly grateful for the gift. However, the words “thank you” can be confusing. They can be an expression of gratitude or an expression of politeness. Without the clear signs and expression of joy, it’s difficult to decipher whether the person in the second scenario is truly grateful.

When we express or demonstrate joy, we are also expressing our gratitude, without having to speak a single word. There is no room for doubt. We feel it and those around us can see it. Joy is, therefore, the simplest expression of gratitude there is.