More on Gratitude

I read this in a book called The Crucible of Doubt a few months ago and have been wanting to share it ever since...

"My grateful mental state lets in a different view of reality than is otherwise possible...And when I am thus conscious of my life and the world as a gift, I am less preoccupied with self.  My attention focuses elsewhere.  I am more alert to other people's needs and virtues.  I find my wonder awakened by just about everything:  the engineering behind the physique of a a cricket or a fly, for instance, or the beauty in even a pebble.  In other words, when I am grateful, I tend toward a higher mental (and spiritual) state.  I take things - people, order, air, roundness, everything - less for granted.  Hence I notice things otherwise invisible to me.  It is as if I have a sixth sense, taking in more context, more reality.  If my temporary taste of gratitude becomes a disciplined habit, an ongoing attitude and state of mind, I am 'smarter,' more aware, than if this were not so.  To the extent that I become a habitually grateful person, I engage a different and richer reality than the 'me' who is less grateful."

-Philip Barlow