The art of complete gratitude: Embracing the good and giving back

Having complete gratitude takes practice. Essentially, we must learn to accept goodness and give it back.

Receiving the Good

Society likes to preach to us the virtue of earning good things. Of course, the idea that we should put effort into our work and get what we deserve is not bad. However, it may cause us to feel some discomfort when we get good things without any effort. Gratitude requires us to learn to accept the good we receive without effort. Happiness often comes from the good things we earn. But it also comes from the goodwill of others we do not deserve. By accepting the kindness from our family or friends without feeling bad, we open ourselves to another whole world of goodness. We expand our capacity for happiness. To practice gratitude, we must willingly accept the kindness others show us. There is only so much we can earn in this lifetime. But there is an endless amount of good things outside of us.

Giving Back the Good

Learning to receive goodness is only one part of the equation. For gratitude to be complete, we must let our feelings of appreciation nudge us to give some good back. In doing so, we foster a cycle of good that continues beyond the initial emotion. A simple way to give back is to verbally or physically communicate your gratitude to the person. You can also go beyond them and pass the good forward to someone else. In any case, the important thing is for your feelings of gratitude to flow into action. Gratitude should not end without action. We should always seek opportunities to give good back to the world. Only then can our gratitude be fully complete.