Gratitude is a Feeling

Many of us feel that we aren’t appreciated, whether it’s at home, in our relationships, or on the job, but it’s interesting sometimes to do a careful assessment of how much appreciation we actually give.

If we don’t give, how can we expect to receive, and this  applies also to appreciation and gratitude.  According to the Collins Concise Dictionary, the word, gratitude, means a feeling of thankfulness, as for gifts or favours. So gratitude is a feeling; and feelings are based in the body, not in the brain.  So how often do you experience, consciously experience, a feeling of gratitude?

As a form of social etiquette, we’ll say thanks to the checkout operator, the man who fixes our car, and  the person who supplies the information we’re seeking, but probably there isn’t a great deal of feeling in such exchanges.  True gratitude and appreciation is delivered as a feeling, and even if we don’t recognise it intellectually, in some part of us, we understand when gratuitous appreciation is delivered, because we can’t actually feel it.