'We should be grateful', is a phrase bantered about a lot these days.
I get the sentiment. We can all be guilty of being morose from time to time. Being grateful for the small mercies, gives us perspective in that moment in time. It can remind us that things aren't always that bad.
However, I am becoming increasingly aware that this phrase to justify our privilege is getting used without awareness. It has become insidious.
By this I mean, it is all too easy to brush off very current and very real concerns. By telling somebody that they should be grateful is completely invalidating that persons concerns.
To be grateful, suggests that there must be a lack for someone else.
In this current climate, where the net is drawing tighter and tighter with regards to our freedom and liberty, to attempt to raise any kind of concern that things are not as they were, and then to be told we should be grateful for what we have, is not conducive to making a conscious change.
It allows us to become complacent and it breeds apathy.
How can we begin to strive for greater achievements and to do better in society when we are constantly shut down by being told we should be grateful for our lot?
It is of course, scientifically proven that to express gratitude everyday re-wires the brain, causing chemical changes to help us towards positive thinking.
Counting our blessings is a good thing. To be in gratitude reminds us to be in the present.
However, what if we are without food, or shelter, what if we are quite literally in fight or flight mode how does it feel to acknowledge that there are indeed many thousands in this very position now? How then, can we be in gratitude and at peace knowing that others are going without? What can our gratitude possibly bring to the table?
So I will contest gratitude. Not because I do not believe that it works, but because I need to keep it real.
Perhaps we can do better than to be in gratitude.
Perhaps we can dive deeper into the realms of love and connection. Gratitude feels too materialistic. Gratitude is feeling safe and comfortable, how can it be felt otherwise? If we are not feeling those things, then surely we are merely bypassing? How can we possibly feel gratitude in times of strife and by strife, I mean do or die...
One could argue that love and gratitude comes hand in hand. that is as may be. Perhaps feeling gratitude leads us onto the path of love. But is it possible that gratitude detaches us from one another? I am ok. (but you may not be?)
Gratitude feels conditional. Love, And I mean real love is not.
'To Be Love'. Is to be free.
So this is where I am at. I still have periods of feeling overwhelmed, fearful and frustrated for my fellow beings.
I am grateful for my health, the food on my plate, the air that I breathe and for so many things. But these do not bring me peace. Love however, does.
Love is to understand that we are so much more than this.
To understand that we are all connected through our higher consciousness no matter what our stance we take in this life. That is love. It is unabashed and unafraid.
We are all made of energy matter. In this energy field we are all interconnected.
So what do you bring to the table with your gratitude if this is what you practice? What changes can be made with our expressions of gratitude?
