Why is it important to be able to express gratitude?

We frequently receive a lot of information about gratitude lately. Religions and disciplines that include the spiritual or transcendental aspect tend to insist a lot on this. Astrology, yoga, and holistic therapies highlight it.

Sometimes daily habits or rituals are suggested as being grateful for being alive or being able to be in the present moment.

Being grateful is also a mandate of religious doctrines and is usually a demand of mothers and fathers in education.

Saying Thank You accompanies Please among the words that are taught not to be "rude" and sometimes for a long time we were forced to thank even though we can't truly connect with it.

Gratitude, beyond its spiritual and cultural implications, has a psychological effect. And this is what is interesting to highlight. For this to happen it cannot be done in a forced way, it has to be experienced.

It helps us to accept what we have, to integrate what we don't like, and to transcend the conflicts that usually arise in daily life. Giving thanks is only valid as a symbolic act if we enable ourselves to experience it. Being thankful for being thankful, every morning, as many practices propose, does not have real meaning as it can be done “automatically”.

True gratitude is not encouraged in our western society. Saying thank you becomes a way to "look good" with the other person, and protect one's own image. As a society, we are more used to asking than to thanking.

To people who are not used to contact with the spiritual, giving thanks can seem empty, ridiculous, even a sign of vulnerability.

What does gratitude really symbolize? If we see it from the psychological point of view, giving thanks is accepting and valuing what we have. The act itself positions us in a place of revaluation of everything we experience, in the past and in the present. Being able to highlight what was or is significant has a positive impact on our lives. This is in itself a complex and effective psychological work as it puts us in contact with parts of ourselves and our experiences that often go unnoticed.

Asking for, or always wanting something else places us in a plane of constant demand and demand. Psychoanalysis maintains that desire is precisely this motor that makes us always look for something else and that it corresponds to a structural void, something that no matter how much we want, we will never be able to fill. Desire moves us, in relation to what is missing. Gratitude places us in relation to what is present and allows us to see the two sides of the same coin.

The symbolic act of gratitude plays an important role in acceptance. It is an act of acknowledgment of the conditions that our reality presents, taking charge of what is and what was, which enables transformations and future possibilities. 

It is a valuable action insofar as it allows us to get rid of denial and complaint, and enables a position to be taken regarding what is happening to us. A starting point where we balance what we have experienced and metabolize what is necessary to be able to project into the future.

 

Thank You