Cultivating an attitude of gratitude is primarily an internal endeavor, wherein we try to change the default direction of our thoughts. Still, such cultivation can be, and often needs to be, assisted by an appropriate external rearrangement. While externals themselves don’t change the internals, they can definitely aid in changing the internals.
A person trying to recover from alcoholism would be aided by ensuring that no alcohol bottles are in their visible vicinity, at home or in the workplace. What applies for distancing ourselves from negative thought patterns, also applies for bringing us closer to healthier thought patterns.
Change in externals can refer primarily to change in our external physical environment and secondary, to change in our schedules, which determine to some extent what external environments we find ourselves in during the course of our day. For example, an external change that could make cultivating gratitude easier would be to create in our home a small corner of beauty and joy. It could be a beautifully decorated altar or a tastefully arranged closet or a comforting corner for meditation or a small garden, where greenery and beauty reside and preside. Having our own special space like this and pre-adjusting our schedule, so that we can have time for a few minutes in this particular place, will immediately and vividly remind us that we do indeed have something nice to be grateful for. Thus, we can more easily cultivate the Bhagavad-gita guideline to practice the mental discipline of cultivating contentment.
Though our external situations may limit how much external change we can bring about, nonetheless, just a small external change can make cultivating gratitude easier. Why not help ourselves in doing the desirable?
Summary
To aid the inner change toward a grateful consciousness, make an external change by creating a corner of beauty in our outer world for which we can easily feel grateful.
Think it over
- How can externals aid in your internals?
- What external situation makes gratitude easier for you to experience?
- How can you change your space and schedule to include that external situation in your daily life?
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17.16: And satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self-control and purification of one’s existence are the austerities of the mind.
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self controlis most valued in life.