Keep Giving Thanks

Keep Giving Thanks

In homes across the United States, people will be roasting turkeys and mashing potatoes on Thursday, November 23. This is, of course, the day we celebrate Thanksgiving.  For some, it just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without the Macy’s Parade. For others, football is a family tradition.

 

According to Lilly Willis, “Another way to consider Thanksgiving is as an important exercise in spirituality – for the power of gratitude and its importance in nearly all the world’s major religions in well documented. Yes, historically Thanksgiving arose from an important gathering of Pilgrims and Native Americans in 1641 at the Plymouth Plantation in the New World (a location which would eventually become Plymouth, Massachusetts, U.S.). But, instead of looking at Thanksgiving as a celebration of an historical event, one could very well look at Thanksgiving as a celebration of the importance of gratitude.”

 

As Lily reminds us, “Gratitude, or being grateful, comes from the word ‘grace.’ The word ‘grace’ can be traced back to ancient Sanskrit’s ‘grnati’ which could be interpreted as ‘sings and/or praises.’ Grace in Old French meant ‘to pardon, mercy, expressing thanks and virtue.’ In Latin gratia means ‘to favor, show esteem and/or good will.’ No matter how we look at it, and in whatever language, ‘grace’ seems to express showing or being thankful for the good fortune provided by God, or the Universe, or Providence, or whatever force(s) are at work in our favor. Consider being without grace, or ungrateful: To not sing praise, to express ill-will, to condemn, to be unvirtuous. Hummmm … that sounds rather like being unloving and not spiritual.”

As Lily explains, “Gratitude is one of the oldest and most enduring virtues of human spirituality. Both the followers of traditional religions and of modern spiritual movements have found gratitude to be a transformative emotion, and many have argued that learning to be grateful and appreciative of what you have has the power to radically change how you see the world and how you live your life.”

Lily has written an article on The Power of Gratitude, which you can find in the Psychics Directory library of free articles, that sheds light on the role of gratitude in all of the world’s major religions. In the article, Lily also looks at the role gratitude plays in New Age movements.

“New Age movements often seek to move beyond individual religions and utilize many different teachings in order to create a type of syncretic belief system,” she says. “Religious and spiritual teachings about gratitude have carried over seamlessly into many modern New Age beliefs. For example, gratitude is featured heavily in the popular trilogy of books by Rhonda Byrne, The Secret, The Power, andThe Magic.”

Lily explains, “The books, which talk about how you can achieve your goals and build the life you want using the power of your intentions, always stress the fact that in order for any of your intentions to become reality, you must learn to be deeply grateful for what you already have.

“Being grateful,” she emphasizes, “will help you to feel more positive emotions such as peace, joy, and love, and those positive emotions will in turn act to attract more positivity to your life.”

After studying and writing about gratitude, Lily offers this advice: “This Thanksgiving, celebrate with turkey or whatever traditions you have. Enjoy the holiday. And, perhaps for a moment or two, consider that gratitude seems to be the key to a happy and fulfilling life, and there is no reason why all of us shouldn’t be able to benefit from taking a moment out of our day, every day, to give thanks for what we have.”

She also includes contact information for two psychics she says understand the power of gratitude: Psychic Rheda, who can be reached at 1-866-407-7164 (toll free USA and Canada) and Psychic Libby – also available at 1-866-407-7164.

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