The eighth strategy for connecting to conscience is gratitude.

Gratitude is an attitude of appreciation for everything we have, whatever it is.

A constant state of gratitude puts an end to all feelings of entitlement. When I drop all expectations and take nothing for granted, everything is a cause for celebration and joy.

In the absence of complaint – ‘I am missing this thing’…’This is not going my way…’ -- my attention is turned, in wonder and delight, towards whatever I do have.

A gift is appreciated for the love it conveys more than the tangible form it takes. Whether the gift is from another person or from God, it lets me know that I am loved. I enjoy the gift, but I am even more grateful knowing God is there for me.

How can I feel anything but appreciation for the people in my life, material comforts, the sun shining in the sky and the air that I breathe? I did not do anything special to deserve these things. We rarely say ‘Why me?’ over the good things in life.

We think that everything we have, we own. Yet, the world and everything in it belongs to God. It is mine to use only after I show appreciation for it.

Two of the blessings we say every morning, ‘Blessed are you God…who has provided all of my needs.’ ‘Blessed are you God…who has guided the steps of a person,’ teach that all of the conditions of life, all of the challenges and all of one’s talents comprise all of what one needs to fulfill one’s God-given tasks.

You were given every material object and every experience in life for a reason. You were not given the same personality or life conditions as someone else, because your mission is different from theirs. Envy is a sign of spiritual imbalance. Why do I want what belongs to someone else? Am I not able to trust that I have been given everything I need to do what I am meant to do and be the person I am meant to be?

So instead of first deciding what I want and then figuring out how to get it, the order is reversed. Ask what gifts you’ve been given and then figure out how to use them.

Everything is a gift. Even the suffering we endure is a gift, because it’s an opportunity to learn and to grow. We can be thankful for the pain and hardship too. Granted, doing this is the biggest challenge, but gratitude for the suffering opens the way to miracles. When you visualize being grateful for something that is not yet a reality, your brain does not know the difference between whether it has already happened or not. Being thankful for the healing or the relationship you are praying for, for example, is a powerful energetic tool which changes reality.

How does gratitude help cultivate a relationship with conscience?  

Conscience discerns the meaning of the moment. When you get into the habit of recognizing every moment as a gift, it becomes much more clear what kind of opportunity it is presenting. As Frankl says, we feel ourselves ‘personally and validly’ addressed. We can only feel personally and validly addressed when the reality is a true gift. Not a fluke. Not delivered to the wrong address. Rather a question that has been directed to me and only me to answer.