This is a challenging question for me. I’ve been reflecting on it off and on for several hours. The best answer I can give from my perspective is that “feeling” grateful is an emotion. I might feel grateful or I might not. “Being” grateful is a state of being. I recognize my blessings or assets using my mind so, for me, it is an intellectual action. I can be grateful without feeling the emotion. That is helpful to recognize.
As far as I understood it, part of the nature of our feelings is their changeability, as a feeling of gratefulness most probably will soon be replaced by the next feeling, based on our thoughts mainly.
If remembering it well, it was Br. David Steindl-Rast who mentioned that Gratefulness is not a feeling but an inner position we chose to take towards life. Being grateful then is a state of being, is founded in Love, humbleness and deep respect towards all which is. It is all-inclusive, including as well possible pain one might experience even in the same time.
Feeling grateful is ephemeral and conditional, whereas being grateful is lasting and unconditional. I choose the latter as path and practice. Still early days.
I guess feeling grateful does not always lead to action. Being grateful often does. Feelings pass. Being demand presence. Grateful presence changes things both in and around you. It’s healing energy is bound to assist both you and those whose lives cross your path. I think today’s quote reflects what I’m attempting to express!
“The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and their destination.”
John Schaar
Feeling gratefulness to me is a spontaneous experience. I know I am in a good spot when I am filled with gratitude in the moment. Being grateful is a choice to focus on the blessings right in front of me, and is a way to stay balanced and hopeful
I can feel grateful privately without ever permitting any outward sign that I am so, and sometimes do. But I do believe that it’s incumbent upon me to share my gratefulness with others, especially if they are the reason for my gratitude. .So by sharing, I am not just “feeling” grateful, I am actively “being” grateful…
Feelings can be more fleeting, or, as a counselor once said to me, “Feelings are not facts.” (One can feel something that is more a knee-jerk response to a perceived injustice or reality, when it’s really only what our own baggage lays upon a situation.) BEING grateful might be a life posture — my way of being in the world is a posture of gratitude.
You can be grateful without needing to have big feelings of gratitude. You are ultimately grateful, even when feeling positive is difficult. How can you be grateful without big feelings of gratitude? I’ve found that there are always things to be grateful about, at the very least through the belief that things will be well down the road again. Sometimes it’s simply saying, “Thank goodness it’s not always like this!”
An old childhood thought goes something along these lines, “Three men were walking on a wall, feeling, faith, and fact. When feeling took an awful fall, faith was taken aback. Yet fact remained, and fact pulled up faith, and faith pulled up feeling, and they walked on the wall again.”
FACT is, we can be grateful, even if only by choosing to see what we have to be thankful for, or will soon have… and then the rest follows.
Give yourself the gift of free bi-monthly inspiration including uplifting articles, diverse stories, supportive practices, videos, and more, delivered with heart to your inbox.
There’s a “should” in me that I should write about the difference between them but frankly they’re all part of a rolling wave for me.
This is a challenging question for me. I’ve been reflecting on it off and on for several hours. The best answer I can give from my perspective is that “feeling” grateful is an emotion. I might feel grateful or I might not. “Being” grateful is a state of being. I recognize my blessings or assets using my mind so, for me, it is an intellectual action. I can be grateful without feeling the emotion. That is helpful to recognize.
As far as I understood it, part of the nature of our feelings is their changeability, as a feeling of gratefulness most probably will soon be replaced by the next feeling, based on our thoughts mainly.
If remembering it well, it was Br. David Steindl-Rast who mentioned that Gratefulness is not a feeling but an inner position we chose to take towards life. Being grateful then is a state of being, is founded in Love, humbleness and deep respect towards all which is. It is all-inclusive, including as well possible pain one might experience even in the same time.
Don’t know the difference but being grateful might require some sort of action
Feeling grateful is ephemeral and conditional, whereas being grateful is lasting and unconditional. I choose the latter as path and practice. Still early days.
I guess feeling grateful does not always lead to action. Being grateful often does. Feelings pass. Being demand presence. Grateful presence changes things both in and around you. It’s healing energy is bound to assist both you and those whose lives cross your path. I think today’s quote reflects what I’m attempting to express!
“The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and their destination.”
John Schaar
Feeling gratefulness to me is a spontaneous experience. I know I am in a good spot when I am filled with gratitude in the moment. Being grateful is a choice to focus on the blessings right in front of me, and is a way to stay balanced and hopeful
Seems to me that being grateful is the living out of the feeling of gratefulness, and perhaps it’s one true testimony.
I see & feel no distinction. I can’t quantify Grace; It just Is.
I can feel grateful privately without ever permitting any outward sign that I am so, and sometimes do. But I do believe that it’s incumbent upon me to share my gratefulness with others, especially if they are the reason for my gratitude. .So by sharing, I am not just “feeling” grateful, I am actively “being” grateful…
Feelings can be more fleeting, or, as a counselor once said to me, “Feelings are not facts.” (One can feel something that is more a knee-jerk response to a perceived injustice or reality, when it’s really only what our own baggage lays upon a situation.) BEING grateful might be a life posture — my way of being in the world is a posture of gratitude.
I read all the other reflections, and find I agree with all of them. And I am grateful.
One must be grateful in order to feel grateful.
Feeling grateful is personal, self reflective, and internal. Being grateful one tends to share that with others like this website’s platform.
You can be grateful without needing to have big feelings of gratitude. You are ultimately grateful, even when feeling positive is difficult. How can you be grateful without big feelings of gratitude? I’ve found that there are always things to be grateful about, at the very least through the belief that things will be well down the road again. Sometimes it’s simply saying, “Thank goodness it’s not always like this!”
An old childhood thought goes something along these lines, “Three men were walking on a wall, feeling, faith, and fact. When feeling took an awful fall, faith was taken aback. Yet fact remained, and fact pulled up faith, and faith pulled up feeling, and they walked on the wall again.”
FACT is, we can be grateful, even if only by choosing to see what we have to be thankful for, or will soon have… and then the rest follows.
I love your old childhood thought.
It is true.
Blessings dear Dusty Su.
And bless you too, Anna. 🥰