subject: Gratitude and self improvement [print this page] Gratitude and self improvement Gratitude and self improvement
Even though we live in one of the wealthiest periods of human history there are still a lot of problems all around the world. People in third world countries suffer from starvation and lack of clean water and struggle with overcoming some pretty simple diseases.
The fact that people in Africa don't even have money to get malaria vaccines is a pretty good example of this, in fact most people in Africa don't even have the money to buy a tent that will protect them from insect bites.
The western world however is doing pretty good and even people living at the lowest quality of life are able to survive and can easily find a place to live and eat. We have shelters set up and organizations that feed homeless people on the street, furthermore you can get help from hospitals if you are in danger of dying.
Even though we live in such a society, suicide rates are higher than ever and you see more and more examples of people killing themselves either intentionally or through the means of overeating, drugs etc. A lot of people are depressed and don't find any meaning in life. This is really sad and it is very important that we start dealing with these issues.
People just a hundred years ago would have killed to be in the position we are in now and would have given their left arm in order to have all the current opportunities we have present. All of the above mentioned facts prove to us that wealth and money isn't necessarily the key to happiness and that there is a deeper mechanism behind happiness amongst humans.
The first thing we need to do is to start appreciating all the things we actually have in life right now. These are things we normally look past, things like our healthy, sight, senses etc. The fact that we have a warm place to sleep and food on the table is just an added bonus that we should really be thankful for. As you can see the first place to start creating happiness is to be grateful for all the things we actually do have and thank the universe and the lord for giving us such a fantastic life, body and mind. If you don't appreciate your life as it is now, you will never be able to be happy.
