Barriers to Gratitude

Gratitude is quite literally the foundation to happiness and wellbeing. If you don’t get this one down, you can forget building anything else.  So what are the barriers that keep us from experiencing genuine gratitude?

Entitlement:

It’s hard to be grateful if  you feel you deserve a problem and care-free life.

Indebtedness:

It’s hard to be grateful if you are obsessing about having to pay back the kindness of friends.

Control:

It’s hard to be grateful for the assistance you are offered if you can’t make peace with the fact that you need it.

Sympathy:

It’s hard to be grateful when one develops a dependance on receiving attention through sympathy.

Competition:

It’s hard to be grateful when there’s a competition going on to see whose got “it” worse.

Devaluation:

It’s hard to be grateful if we fail to appropriately value or prioritize the most precious components of life; including time.

Selfcenteredness:

It’s hard to be grateful when one’s field of vision doesn’t encompass those we love and the gratitude we can feel for the good that’s happening in their lives.. even when things aren’t going so well in our own.

Amnesia:

It’s hard to be grateful when we don’t acknowledge the blessings we have experienced in the past.

Jealousy: 

It’s impossible to be grateful if we are percolating with envy and resentment.