5 Reasons Gratitude is the Gift that Gives

This feeling fuels a rapid turnaround in the flow of their revenue and career effectiveness. Focusing on what you haven’t yet accomplished and what you don’t have diverts your attention from what you do have and what you have accomplished. It keeps you caught up ‘in your head’, (often with unconstructive or stress-inducing thoughts, such as ‘why isn’t it happening the way I want”, “how long is it going to take til I have what I want” etc.) and experiencing stress sensations in your body (e.g., tension in shoulders, pit in stomach).

In contrast, being grateful is an attitude that ‘comes from your heart’, enabling a warm, uplifting, energizing feeling within your body.Scientific research results encourage a practice of gratitude and strong feelings from your heart. Many studies have shown that the strength of a person’s electromagnetic field is determined by what feeling state they are in, even if the feeling lasts only a few seconds in duration. Feelings of self doubt (shame, guilt, fear) calibrate at strength levels between 20-100 whereas a person in a state of acceptance, love, and gratitude calibrates between 350 and 500 (D. Hawkins, Power vs. Force, 2002)

The implication, for those of you who subscribe to notions outlined in “The Secret”, is that states of gratitude literally create thoughts with a ‘higher vibrational frequency’ which therefore attract people and new business that are at a similar level of frequency. Further, the heart’s electrical field is 60 times greater in amplitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain – it’s the most powerful field produced by the human body. Sincere positive feeling states can improve your cognitive performance and mental clarity. And, the electromagnetic field created by your heart can synchronize the brain waves of people around you up to several feet away (the implication - try working an attitude of gratitude into your sales techniques!)

Why it can be hard to be grateful

If it is hard for you to feel grateful much of the time even though you know you “should” more often, here’s why: (In the absence of unfortunate out-of-your-control experiences such as tragedies and non-preventable health conditions), many of the career related emotional and financial struggles you experience are at root self imposed. They stem from a core doubt you have about yourself, which pressures you to achieve external markers that will enable you to finally prove that you are ‘enough’ and disprove you are ‘not enough’.

These pressures to succeed cause you to stress yourself out overworking yourself (usually inefficiently) to prove you ‘have what it takes.’ Self doubts also set you up to limit your success by procrastinating/avoiding putting yourself out there, which you do in order to ensure that you won’t erode whatever respect you have gained from other people. In short, trying to prove yourself (to yourself and to others) keeps you focused on what you haven’t yet accomplished and on “I have so much to do”.

Constantly measuring yourself keeps you “in your head” and focuses attention on the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. This focus demoralizes you and maintains your doubts about whether success is possible. Your doubt prevents feeling deserving. When you don’t appreciate yourself, you can’t appreciate what you have.

Tips to become more grateful