Examining gratitude began in my personal analysis in the 1990’s. As my analysis unfolded my recurrent experiences of gratitude were among my most profound emotions I discovered. They were observed, named as spiritual but not really talked about in the way my other emotions were addressed.

Moments of gratitude have an unquestioned quality in daily life and often become invisible. I believe the power of nurturing a grateful heart is worthy of study beyond analyzing the opposite which is greed, envy, shame, humiliation and jealousy.

On PepWeb, the psychoanalytic Bible of resources, I found twenty nine articles under the search word, gratitude. On google I found under one hit 230 pages filled with links to the power of gratitude.

I thought I would extend my thanksgiving day table exercise to this format of my blog to write about the power of gratitude.

I believe gratitude practiced daily opens the heart and activates positive emotions in the brain. Regular practice of gratitude can change the way our brain neurons fire into more positive automatic patterns. These positive emotions we evoke will sooth distress and broaden our thinking patterns to develop a larger more expansive view of our lives, Gratitude is the emotion of connections which reminds us we are part of a larger universe with all living beings.

To name a few benefits of gratitude we can think of a things like gratitude makes us happier, we sleep better, exercise more and have lower blood pressure. Our work environment is healthier with a spirit of gratitude in the air thereby strengthening our existing emotions. With a grateful heart our personality can develop with more optimism, be more spiritual in nature, less self-centered, more self-esteem and be less materialistic.

Gratitude is a virtue and provides the foundation for spiritual transcendence. In turn the emotional sense of resilience is supported.

In summary, the essence of the experience of gratitude is that it is pleasurable, spontaneous, inter subjective and an affective response to life around. The basic definition of gratitude is the shared meaning of something freely give without obligation carrying the idea of a free attitude.

The European roots of the word gratitude point to the word of generosity and implies the mother/child relationship. To give birth, be born, to be kind and gentle. This is a Spiritual truth that all religions share, be it Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu or Buddhist. To be generous, and have a spirit of gratitude is indeed a spiritual way of being in the world.