Gratitude has become one of the key words of the moment. Showing gratitude, expressing gratitude, embracing gratitude are currently one of the main things that all of those people who seek to walk a higher path are mentioning.
 
Gratitude is a great thing. Allowing yourself to exist in a moment of true gratitude is a powerful process that can truly guide you and your mind and your being into a higher state of grace where you knowingly and intentionally acknowledge that you are grateful for what you have and have experienced in your life.
 
Whether this gratitude or great-full-ness is simply acknowledging that you are thankful for the small things you have or for the greater whole of all that you are and have become; knowingly acknowledging these things sets your mind to a condition of peace and heightened awareness.
 
Do you spend any time embracing gratitude? If so, when do you do it? Do you do as you sit where you live? Do you do it as you lay in your warm bed? Do you do it as you are with someone or something you love? Do you do it when you see some great natural landscape? Do you just do it to do?
 
If you have done it—if you have truly embraced gratitude, you will understand the way in which it makes you feel. It takes you to a new plane of existence and understanding and life acknowledgement.
 
I find that there are a few problems that people fall into when embracing gratitude. Many only do it when there is some sort of external stimuli—something that makes them feel a certain kind of way. But, should the consciousness of gratitude only be embraced when it is forcefully stimulated in your mind—when you are feeling good about yourself, your life, or your life experience? Or, should it be a more conscious partaking, where you actually choose to do it simply to do it?
 
Moreover, is the true embracing of gratitude only you thinking about you and how good and wonderful your life is? Or, should embracing gratitude also be you expressing it outwards and causing other people to feel good and happy and secure and loved and appreciated and all of that nice kind of stuff in their life? I believe it should (also) be the latter.  
 
So, how about it? Do you consciously focus on your gratitude? Do you hold your gratitude only to yourself? Is your gratitude only a selfish thought process, mentally rewarding yourself for all of the goodness in your life? Or, do you cause others to be grateful for their life and what you have added to it?
 
Your life. Your choice.