EDITOR’S MESSAGE

GRATITUDE

            “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.” – John F Kennedy

What is Gratitude? It is much more than just saying “Thank you”. It is a feeling in which we thankfully appreciate what we get, be it visible or invisible. However busy our lives may be, we should pause and take time to recognize and appreciate the value of the things that we often take for granted like the shelter we are in, food we eat, fresh air that we breathe and our caretakers, friends, family, teachers, strangers who help us, sanitation workers and so on. If we do so, we can see that the sources of those tangible and intangible things, are from the outside of one’s own self and how they contribute so much goodness in our lives.

Feeling grateful can enhance our happiness and it nurtures our physical and mental health. It helps us in reducing our stress levels, so our body’s immune response will be better to fight against illnesses. It helps us cultivate more optimism. Scientists have found out that being grateful improves our mood, sleep, patience, resiliency, self-confidence, tendency to forgive and to focus more on the present. Gratitude helps us to establish better relationships with our friends, acquaintances and family. Even in workplaces, when we practise gratitude it creates a healthy environment and it can make us a better manager and a leader.

Can we start cultivating gratitude in our daily lives? It is as easy as sparing just 10 minutes in our bed, before going to sleep jotting down all the things that happened during that day for which we are grateful. It doesn’t always have to be ‘big’. It could be the sun for giving us loads of vitamin D, farmers for our meal, clean water, the trees for giving us oxygen, our favourite memories, our body for putting up with us. A small ‘Thank you’ for someone who helps us will go a long way. Let us open up new channels for goodness to enter into our lives by counting on our blessings each day.

• Kaviya Rajendran, Parent