The Gratitude, Generosity Loop

My friend Ryan and I tried gratitude practices.

 We tried naming three things we were grateful for over dinner each evening. We tried journaling about what we were grateful for each day. Gratitude practices receive a lot of attention and praise so we thought it was worth a try.

 Ryan and I can be honest with each other. 

After a few weeks of gratitude practices we shared our honest reflections. To our surprise they didn’t seem to work. There was no perceptible shift in mood immediately after doing the practice, nor was it easy to observe any long term benefit in terms of improvement in the quality of daily thoughts.

  This puzzled me for some time. Could all the research be flawed? Or are gratitude practices another example of, “the emperor's new clothes,” hyped up beyond their actual effectiveness?

 Then I realised gratitude is only half of the equation. 

Nature requires balance. There is no up without down, no push without pull, no offence without defence. Gratitude alone is incomplete.

  The missing piece of the puzzle? Generosity.

Generosity shifts our attention from what we have received, to the gifts can share.

 When gratitude and generosity are in harmony, the energetic loop is complete. As the generosity/ gratitude loop spirals it generates energy, uplifting the mood and mindset of the practitioner and those around them.

  May your week be filled with generous gratitude.