The attitude of gratitude

How many times have we heard the phrase, “The attitude of gratitude”? The word gratitude is thrown around so often that it sometimes loses its luster to the untrained eye. If we stopped to make a list of all the areas of our life that we have been blessed it would be easy to feel grateful for a moment. But what would it look like if gratitude were an action word? If we simply decided to live out our gratitude rather than just post it with a cute picture on social media. It would affect us in every facet of our lives! We would have a more positive outlook, our conversations would be more uplifting, our tolerance for things that cause us grief would increase, we would most certainly sleep sounder and the folks around us would gravitate towards us. The remnants of alcoholism and drug addiction have the type of effects that ripple beyond measure. But then again, so does gratitude. As family members and loved ones of those in recovery, how can we use this positive ripple to stream out into the world? With summertime rapidly approaching, most everyone we know is making a resolution to step away from the piece of pie and step into the closest workout facility. Lots of us make that commitment each year, only to lose interest by the time we hear the music blaring from the ice cream truck in our neighborhood. What if we didn’t make a resolution but rather a decision to practice being grateful. There are so many ways for that to take hold of our hearts. When was the last time you told your spouse, child, coworker or friend all the ways that they enrich your life? Have you done something lately for someone in your life simply because you were blessed to have them in yours? Do you practice expressing your thankfulness for smallest acts of kindness bestowed upon you? If gratitude is an action word, how do you want it to play out in your life? Gratitude is not merely that we are grateful for the things we have but that we understand where all good things ultimately come from which is God. This level of humility produces a grateful heart within us. So, whether we feel grateful or not in any given circumstance, it does our spirit well to bless those around us by practicing the attitude of gratitude! Audrey Woodfin BRC Recovery