Gratitude

“Gratitude is the Ultimate State of Receivership.”

-Dr. Joe Dispenza

The etymology of the word gratitude, in Latin is graitudinem meaning thankfulness and good will. Gratus in Latin can also mean pleasing or to favor. In Sanskrit grnati means to sing praises, to announce or to celebrate.

To have gratitude is to be thankful, to sing praises, to announce, to celebrate a pleasing favor of goodwill. I would add that this would apply to past, present, AND future events.

Gratitude is a state of mind or thinking, AND it is also a feeling of the heart. As we have learned from Dr. Dispenza, the mind is the electric part of your body, and the heart is the magnetic part of your body. Together, the two work to create an electromagnetic current or toros field around your body. This field draws to you the things that you focus on.

The problem is if you focus on fear, scarcity, and lack, the universe gives you more of those things. If you focus on love, prosperity, and abundance you will attract more of that. Both are just as easy to focus on and are a choice of the will.

This is nothing new. We learned from our last blog that James Allen wrote about the importance of thinking correctly back in 1902. Neville Goddard, a Christian mystic, wrote over 15 publications on the esoteric expressing the importance of being aware of the desires that you think. The desires you think about are important to achieve the wish fulfilled but also important is feeling as if you already achieved it. “The subconscious always accepts it as true, that which you feel to be true.”

Do not think of the desire or goal that you want to accomplish but from the desire or goal already being accomplished. To do this, there is no better emotion to think or feel than gratitude.

This takes imagination. Goddard was known for encouraging people not to identify themselves with their senses but with their imagination. This seems counter-intuitive to deny your senses, but this is exactly what it takes to create a future you desire.

He writes, “there is an imagined past and an imagined future. If, by reacting, the past is recreated into the present, so by acting out our dreams or fancy can the future be brought into the present.” This was written in 1901 and published in 1902.

Dr. Joe Dispenza, along with all his research, illustrates this very thing in his books. Many are addicted to negative emotions of the past, by feeling them in the present and reliving the events that have harmed us in the past. The events or people we have not forgotten or forgiven come back up today in the present moment, the most important time – now, our present future, and we get stuck in this cycle.

Another author and artist you will want to do some research on is William Blake. In his book, Marriage of Heaven and Hell -1793, he writes, “Satan is a reactor. He never acts. He only reacts. When you are reactionary, are we not playing Satan’s part? Satan never acts or creates. He only reacts or recreates.”

I find this so interesting and applicable to mental health counseling and recovery today.

Regardless, if you believe in Satan or not. The word Satan means adversary, the accuser. In mental health terms, it is we would call your super ego. Supora means above. Ego means I am. So, the one that is above the I am or lords over. Think of it as that critical parental voice in your head, accusing, blaming, or criticizing you. We also refer to this as the shadow self or the dark side of the soul. You have a dark and light side to yourself. Both are just as important to the duality of this level of consciousness. One does not live without the other.

A hero needs a villain, light needs dark, up needs down, and left needs right.

One is negative, one is positive. It is about duality. Negative does not necessarily mean “bad,” and positive does not mean “good”. Philosophers from the past and the scientists of the present are saying the same thing. That is; what you focus on and give your energy or imagination to, negative or positive, is what will persist in your life.

I can’t tell you how many times I have reacted to a situation inappropriately because my super ego and ego needed to be right and in control. My negative emotions of both “needed” to come out from the past and manifest themselves in the present. These moments have taught me much.

Some of my greatest teachers and life lessons have come from my darkest places of grief; and for them, I have tremendous gratitude.

If you feel like you are experiencing a lot of negative things and are suffering greatly. Know that there is a lesson in what you are going through, and the “negative” painful lessons that you will learn are equally as “positive” on the other side of the pendulum swing.

“Something as simple as moving into an elevated state of joy, love or gratitude for five to ten minutes can produce significant epigenetic changes in our health.”

-Dr. Joe Dispenza

There are significant health benefits when you begin to feel joy and gratitude in all things “good” and “bad.”

So, we get to choose each day, each moment of the day, to either live in resentment, unforgiveness, offense, and anger or in peace, love, joy, and forgiveness. Having gratitude for your feelings in this moment, positive and negative, is the key to changing and manifesting the future that you want to receive.

Cory Schortzman Executive Director

Cory Schortzman is an author, speaker, teacher and licensed mental health professional. Since 2008, he has served as the Executive Director of Transformed Hearts Counseling Center in Colorado Springs, CO. He is the founder of SARA, the Sexual Addiction Recovery Association. Cory is passionate about helping couples and individuals overcome sex addiction. He is also passionate about bringing awareness to the public and supporting the elimination of sex and human trafficking. Cory has been married since 1998 to his beautiful wife, Kerry, and lives in Colorado with their four daughters. He and Kerry have been seen on the CBS Early Show, Inside Edition, and ABC Good Morning America, Fox 21 News, and TLC/Discovery discussing the harm of sex addiction and the joys of recovery. He has also been heard on numerous radio programs.

Cory’s books include: Out of the Darkness, Into the Light the Workbook, Into the Light the Steps, Ashes to Beauty the Steps, 301 Dating Ideas, 301 Conversational Ideas, 301 Ways to Say I Love You, 301 Ways to Love Your Children & 301 Recovery Tools & Tips.