Gratitude is a gift because it brings you to the present.
Gratitude is a quality of the spiritual world, that increases as you give it away.
Gratitude heals because it takes us out of the past, where guilt resides and out of the future, where worry resides–and it moves us back into the present–the only place where peace of mind can occur.
The opposite of gratitude is ingratitude and it will rob you — like a thief in the night — of your happiness and peace of mind.
Why? Because ingratitude makes you a victim of circumstance and when you are a victim, by definition, you are no longer in control of your destiny. You are a victim of circumstance. This is the quickest way to destroy your happiness. Why? Because victims feel that they are being discriminated against unfairly. When you believe this, then you are capable of lying, cheating, stealing or manipulating people in order to get what is “fairly” yours.
According to Dennis Prager, author and talk show host, the two greatest sources of evil are: 1) lies and 2) being a victim. More evil has been done in the 20th century than any time in history. Between 50 million killed by Mao, 20 some million by Stalin and 12 million by Hitler — we can see how lies and playing the victim card can turn good people toward evil behavior.
The #1 force for goodness and happiness in the world is gratitude. The next time you feel angry, hurt or a helpless victim of circumstance, find something to be grateful for and see if you don’t feel better.