Gratefulness
Gratefulness, a Practice in Life
Written by: Anne Miros
NAU HS301
Gratefulness
I started off the semester with the practice of gratefulness. I found out right away that to purposefully set out to assure one practices anything every day at the same time is quite a chore. I started out to spend 5 minutes every day when I first got up. You know, to start the day grateful. A chart was hung on the fridge with great care in hopes that Anne would record her gratefulness there. But at 4:00 AM, no one was stirring, not even a mouse, as the sound of Anne’s alarm clock rung through the house. I learned an important lesson right away. You cannot be too rigid with your practice or it will falter. As I started to accept that a schedule for gratefulness was not working, I started to see the practice come to life. I was analyzing failure at a regular schedule and time, however those around me were noticing and commenting on my positive attitude. I guess the success snuck up on me because I was focused on the practice and not the gratefulness.
At Home
Gratefulness can and should be applied in your personal life. Gratefulness can help you through traumatic times in your life and it can help you appreciate you current position. A friend of mine had a baby. She carried her to term with no issues and excellent prenatal care. The day she was born, she was told she had a severe heart condition. Within 48hours she was gone. She thanked the lord for the time she had with her. She felt grateful to be able to know her little girl, if even for a brief time. Indeed her loss was immense. However her gratefulness for knowing Rachel for the brief amount of time gave her the strength to get through her suffering. One of the happiest people I know is Kelly. She has a smile and a greeting for everyone she sees. I have had the pleasure to know her for 18 years. On many occasions she and I have shared a coffee and a chat. Recently we were discussing our lives and the things we are grateful for. She lit up like a firework show, I was hardly able to get a word in edgewise, which is truly a rarity. Kelly had the perfect life if gratefulness is any indicator. Not surprising to most unless they know her well. Kelly, like me is a single mom. Unlike me, she struggles with cancer. Kelly does not focus on the bad thoughts and life turns she is dealt; she takes them in stride and appreciates the positive in her life. She is not super human; she definitely has her emotional struggles in dealing with her life. However her application of gratefulness is a strong example for the rest of us. Being grateful for what she has today helps her see the beauty in life and keeps her strong to be an awesome mom.
In the Workplace
Do not keep your gratefulness bottled up at home. Take it to work with you. In the work place stress can run high. I work in a great environment, full of high stress important (when everything is STAT, is anything STAT?) work. The work is manageable mainly because the employees feel appreciated. A work place full of gratitude can not only enhance productivity, it can improve customer satisfaction as well. I have seen this first hand. Some years ago I was under different management. Assignments were handed out unevenly; work was expected to be done no matter how heavy the load. The management was invisible unless you were “called into the office”. That was never a good thing. Moral was nonexistent. The management did not change at first, the staff did. Thanks to a motivated individual I am proud to call my friend, the staff started a practice of gratefulness. It started by small pieces of paper that she got permission to hang on a bulletin board. The papers each had an outline of a trophy on them. Each was for a staff member to write a note about how a fellow staff member had helped them out. It started slow, there were a few off color comments on a few, and one individual used them to self-glorify their own actions. However, she persevered. She even started buying candy bars with her own money and having a monthly raffle from the posted notes. One person that was helpful to a coworker would have a candy bar and the knowledge that what they did mattered. Moral improved and eventually the management changed. The staff was happier and more grateful for each other in the process. Mainly during that time of gratitude the high workloads were managed and the “see me in my office” manager was lonely in their empty office. During this same time, the patients, or customers that we cared for were not happy. Grumpy, unappreciated staff were coming and going without much dialog, and the patients noticed. Many of them expressed this to me. As I mentioned above, I am a talkative one. I noticed a change in the patient’s communication a few months after the trophy system started up. One instance stood out. A patient, “Bob” for the use of this paper, was a grumpy old man that had a very dry sense of humor. We got along well, however most of the other staff would beg, borrow, and steel to switch assignments when he came in. He would always ask me why I was the only “normal” one there was. I would smile and tell him, it was because they did not appreciate his rosy personality like I did. On day when entering his room at 2:00 in the morning to wake him up for therapy, he shocked me. It wasn’t his gruff shout out about my tenacity in wakening him up to blow on that D#*& blaster pipe. This was his warm way of saying good morning Anne, how are you. It was the fact that I spent half of the therapy session reminding him of the reason the blasted pipe needed to be in his mouth so he could receive the therapy. He was going on and on about someone who he was known in the past to make cry. He could not say enough about how nice and concerned she was. When I spoke to her later, I asked her what she had done to change his response. She smiled and told me she had given him a “trophy”. She admitted it was a hard one to write, but she thanked him for working with her to help improve his health. Her action changed his impression of the care he received.
Justification
My paper is all fine and good, however, I did not reference a single peer reviewed article. So, you might ask yourself, how I know this. Why didn’t I cite articles from some scientific journal? If you are looking for a reference, you will have to look all around you. Why? Do I cringe at APA format? Well yes, if the be known! However, there is a more important reason. It is called the ”TMUATC”. This stands for “too many unpublished authors to count” reference. Gratitude, wherever it occurs, is common sense. It has been handed down through many generations and is imprinted on so many religious foundations, that one would be hard pressed to find an individual who has not been told they should be grateful for what they have. Personal experience is the most powerful reference to the topic of gratitude, at least in my opinion. As such, it is what I stand behind. Thank you, I am grateful to have the opportunity to share my life experiences with you, and I hope you have received some value in reading what I have written.