Why Feeling Grateful is So Important

We all know how good it feels to experience a deep sense of gratitude. But why is it so hard to feel it at certain times in our lives? How do we get back to feeling grateful when it fades? And why is it the key to having the life we want?

In this episode of What’s the Universe Say About That?, we ask the Universe to help us better understand gratitude. Why is it so important? How do we genuinely feel thankful during difficult times? And why do we sometimes feel guilty for not feeling “grateful enough,” even when life is going well?

The message we received was not what we expected. It was better!

This beautiful and eye-opening conversation with the Universe will open the door to manifesting all you want in life and leave you feeling more connected to the love, appreciation, and everyday gratitude that is available for all of us.

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Email them at: WhatsTheUniverseSay@gmail.com

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To arrange a private reading with Mary to receive the guidance the Universe has for you, visit:
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Transcript

Michael Lannon

(0:00) We all know we're supposed to be thankful and grateful for all we have in life, but sometimes it's hard to feel that way.

Mary Obana

(0:08) And why is gratitude so important? That's what we wanted to know, so we asked the universe.

Michael Lannon

(0:14) Welcome to this episode of What's the Universe Say About That.

Mary Obana

(0:22) I'm Mary Obana, and along with my husband, Michael, we ask the universe for answers. You see, I'm blessed with this beautiful gift where I get quiet and I can connect with the loving guidance of the universe.

Michael Lannon

(0:36) So today, you'll see and hear Mary connect directly to that divine guidance and hear the words of wisdom flow directly through her in response to questions about life and the challenges we all face at certain times.

Mary Obana

(0:49) So welcome to our home.

Michael Lannon

(0:51) And welcome to this now normal, but always amazing part of our daily lives. So sit back, get ready, and let's hear what the universe has to say about that. 

Mary Obana

(1:02) Let's do it.

Hello, everyone.

Michael Lannon

(1:05) Hey, everybody. In a previous episode, we talked about the difference between happiness and joy. And one of the things that came up in that is the difference between thankfulness and gratitude.

(1:18) And gratitude is a big concept. Honestly, I think it's the basis for really any kind of major change you want to make in your life. It all starts with gratitude many times.

(1:33) It certainly did for me. So I thought it would be worth spending an entire episode on understanding the difference between thankfulness and gratitude. And if we're struggling to feel either thankful or grateful, how can we do that?

Mary Obana

(1:55) So why is it so important?

Michael Lannon

(1:56) Yeah, why is it so important? So what can the universe tell us or guide us or help us get to that incredibly enriching feeling of gratitude?

Mary Obana

(2:07) Okay, great.

Michael Lannon

(2:08) Okay. So let's see what the universe has to say about that.

The Universe

(2:24) Well, hello. This is a wonderful topic and an important topic. Gratitude is, as we shared once before, gratitude is something that is felt, not thought.

(2:47) True gratitude is something that is felt deep within you. Why is feeling a sense of gratitude so valuable, so very important? As you've heard us say many times, everything is energy.

(3:12) Everything is energy. And to live a life that is filled with all the goodness that you desire, you want to be in a place of high energy. Low energy, the low vibrating energy, are feelings of fear and stress, regret, anxiousness.

(3:54) These feelings come with a very low vibration. You all know what it feels like to have a low vibrating energy. It is the least desired of feelings.

(4:14) To live the life you so desire, it is essential to live in a place of higher energy, higher vibration. This feels entirely different. The highest vibrating energy is love, gratitude, optimism.

(4:48) You know how this feels and how much better it feels to live in a place of higher vibrating energy. Gratitude is important because it is a way, a path to a higher vibrating existence, a path to living with higher energy. Everything good happens when you are vibrating with a higher energy.

(5:31) So gratitude is a wonderful path to this, you see. When you are intentional with gratitude, when you ask yourself to feel genuinely grateful, what is it that you think of in this moment? There are plenty of things to be thankful for, but feeling thankful, feeling grateful, is what distinguishes that which serves your highest good and that which is a thought.

(6:28) A thought is valuable, don't get us wrong. Thinking that you are grateful or thankful for things is a lovely place to start, but to truly shift your vibration and live in that place of higher energy, it is not enough to just think about it. You must feel it.

(6:56) So the exercises to ask what is it that you feel grateful for, it is a path to raising and elevating your vibration. Why do you want to live in a place of higher vibration? Well, it feels entirely different.

(7:27) It feels better when you are pessimistic versus optimistic, which feels better when you are fearful and stressed versus grateful, which feels better. You always have the ability to choose, to choose what you focus on and where your focus is, where your attention goes, your energy follows, you see. And energy is the ultimate truth detector.

(8:21) You cannot fake energy. Energy always just is. But not only does living in this place of higher vibration feel better, it also naturally attracts more things to feel better about.

(8:49) When you are stressed out, it is easy to find other things to stress you out. When you are in that place of anxiety and stress, the add-on game is very easy to play. All you can think about are all the other reasons, all the things that are going wrong, all the things that aren't the way you wish them to be.

(9:27) When you live in a higher vibration state, gratitude as an example, you see more things to be grateful for. You feel more gratitude. So you see, in the human condition, this human experience, you have been given choice, the ability to choose.

(10:00) You get to choose where your attention goes. And you are the ultimate arbiter of that direction. You get to choose.

(10:21) This can be challenging in times of unwanted circumstance. But even still, you get to choose. You get to choose what you focus on, even when you lose someone you love so dearly.

(10:45) Of course, the pain and agony of the loss is acute. But there will come a time where you will get to choose. Do you choose to live in the agony with the anguish?

(11:09) Or do you choose to focus on the beauty of that life, on all that life gave, on all the love that was felt and shared? You see, you always have a choice, even in the most difficult of circumstances. This choice becomes essential in terms of where your energy resides.

(11:53) The type of energy you live with. Energy is very powerful. Energy is deeply felt.

(12:04) And energy is always received and given. You see, the choices you make affect everyone around you. Those you know well, those you love most deeply, and those that you pass along the street.

(12:34) Energy is always exchanged. Your energy affects others in ways you can see, but in more ways you cannot. So, when you think about the life you wish to live, the way you wish to feel, you get to choose.

(13:10) And that choice affects not only your life, but those all around you. Gratitude is a path to living in a place of higher energy. And this is a place that always feels good to live in.

Michael Lannon

(13:43) From my own personal experience, gratitude felt more like something that it was discovered or recognized. And thankfulness, being thankful, feels more of a thought. Is the energy the same between thankfulness and gratitude, or are they different?

The Universe

(14:17) It is more important to focus on where the energy of these concepts originate. Gratitude is something that is genuinely or generally deeply felt. But someone could also feel deeply thankful.

(14:50) The words themselves are less important than the feeling that you feel. Can you think of things you are grateful for? Yes.

(15:05) Can you think of things you are thankful for? Yes. Can you feel things you are grateful for? Yes. Can you feel things you are thankful for? Yes.

(15:21) The importance is how you feel. The feeling that you have, that you carry, the emotions that are generated, this is where the energy comes from. Something that is felt is genuine.

(15:49) Something that is thought can be, cannot be.

Michael Lannon

(15:59) So I have this kind of question in my head here that I've heard other people, I maybe even have felt this myself, is this idea that, I know I should be grateful. Look at all I have. Look at where I live.

(16:21) I live in the United States. At this time and age, I know I should be grateful, but I'm not. And that makes people feel guilty for not being grateful for all they have.

(16:37) How do they get out of that kind of loop of trying to be grateful but feeling guilty that they're not grateful?

The Universe

(16:53) The reason people generally don't feel grateful is because they are in a state of wanting. When you are wanting, the focus of your energy is on the wanting. So it is difficult to feel grateful when your dominant energy is wanting.

(17:25) The thing about wanting is that energy is always met. Energy always matches. So if you are in a state of wanting, you will attract an energy of more wanting.

(17:46) The best way to get what you desire, what you want, is to feel that you already have it. This is an entirely different topic on the ways vibration works, the way energy works. But you see, once you understand that you are in a state of wanting, you recognize the wanting.

(18:33) So the best path to shifting your energy, because wanting is a lower vibrating energy, the way to shift your energy to gratitude, the way to shift your energy up, to elevate your energy, is to recognize that you are in a state of wanting. But then to ask yourself, what is it that you would feel deep regret and loss from if you no longer had it? Sometimes going through this exercise of understanding what it is that you have, that you would be devastated, or sad, or that you would miss if you no longer had it.

(19:54) This often is a wonderful way to shift your attention to a place, a path, to gratitude. And when you shift that energy to gratitude, everything changes. Everything changes.

(20:23) Because a life of wanting is a life focused on that which is not. A life acknowledging and recognizing the bounty of what it is you have that you each can so easily take for granted. When you allow yourself to consider what it would be like, feel like, to have that no longer, it focuses your attention on the gratitude you have for it being in your life.

(21:08) And when you do this, you focus more on that which you have, the bounty that is around you. They can be small things, they can be big things, but each of those things are in your life, in this moment. And ultimately, when you focus on that which you don't have, you miss the moment right in front of you that is filled with so much that you love, and that you would want if you didn't have it.

(21:59) Does this make sense?

Michael Lannon

(22:02) Completely, as always. Thank you so much. We'll come back to that whole vibration thing in a future episode, but thank you.

The Universe 

(22:21) You are welcome. You are welcome. Gratitude is a gift, you see.

(22:28) There's always, always something to feel grateful for in your life.

Michael Lannon

(22:47) I have to just say, every time I think I have a question that they're going to stumble on, they knock it out of the park. That answer was not what I expected. In fact, if you even go back to the question I asked, what's the difference between gratitude and thankfulness?

(23:09) They took that whole conversation in a completely different path than I think I was expecting. Way more meaningful, deeper. That's great.

(23:24) That's great. The funny thing, I was thinking, they always have like a little word or a turn of a phrase or something that it just kind of resonates, or I never thought of it that way. When I started off, I was saying that gratitude is like a building block, and I couldn't really figure out a way to phrase my experience with gratitude.

(23:57) I didn't know if it was a result or a starting point for peace and recognition that we're not alone and all good stuff. When they said gratitude is the path, that's exactly how it feels. That's exactly the word that I was missing.

(24:23) It gets you to where we all want to be. I wouldn't have phrased it as high vibration, but that's where it is. If you can't start with gratitude, it's maybe impossible or really very, very difficult to get to that higher vibration feelings of love and peace and all those kind of things.

Mary Obana

(24:53) Yeah, those things that live in a higher vibration, the emotions that live with a higher vibration, love, optimism, peace. Some of those things can be more challenging to get to. Like, okay, I'm going to think about peace.

Michael Lannon

(25:16) Yeah, I feel terrible now.

Mary Obana

(25:17) I'm just going to think good thoughts. Right, exactly. So gratitude is unique.

Michael Lannon

(25:22) It's the bridge.

Mary Obana

(25:24) Yeah, it is a unique path because there's always something tangible within your life that you can really hang on to, which is more difficult with peace or some of these other higher vibration emotions.

Michael Lannon

(25:42) And we all know it. We take what we have for granted, as much as it is or as little as it is. And you just take it for granted.

(25:50) And it's almost like a part of the whole human experience is recognizing. I will tell you, the happiest, most content people that I've ever met in my life, if there was one asset, I'd say that they all had one characteristic, is they had a deep sense of gratitude.

Mary Obana

(26:17) They live with gratitude.

Michael Lannon

(26:18) If you meet people that are just grateful, they look like they're from another planet, energetically. They're playing at a much higher level, literally a higher vibration level. It's just they see the world differently.

(26:35) They handle circumstances differently.

Mary Obana

(26:42) And it's kind of like a little bit of a muscle, I think, when you shift your energy to gratitude, you can see more things to be grateful for. And the longer you live there, the easier it is to focus on that. And it feels better to live there.

Michael Lannon

(27:00) You know, they set an example of when you are in a low vibration negative state. And I think everyone can relate to this. When you're feeling bad or negative, you can play that add-on game.

(27:16) You can pile on and awfulize everything. But the exact opposite is true as well. If you're in that really positive state, you can play the add-on game there.

(27:31) But it's not so obvious. It's easier to play the negative add-on game. But the positive add-on game is equally available.

Mary Obana

(27:41) And it's funny, because it feels better to be there. And we get to choose. So why are we driving ourselves so crazy?

Michael Lannon

(27:49) I know. It feels good.

Mary Obana

(27:50) The other thing that I thought was interesting was when they said, when you consider not having it.

Michael Lannon

(27:54) Yeah, that was great.

Mary Obana

(27:55) That was kind of, I think, was a real emotional…it wasn't just like, I'm thinking. It's like you really felt the absence of these things that you enjoy and love so much.

(28:08) And so it's people. It's whatever it might be. It's like, and that kind of gets right to that.

(28:15) That breaks you out of that. Yes, yes, it does. It kind of is a pattern interrupt.

Michael Lannon

(28:21) Well, that was an awesome episode. I feel thankful and grateful for the answers.

Mary Obana

(28:29) Well, the answers only come when you have the questions. I’m grateful for the questions.

Michael Lannon

(28:31) There you go. And I got lots.

(28:35) Thank you so much for joining us.

Mary Obana

(28:38) See you next time.

Michael Lannon

(28:38) See you next time.

Mary Obana

(28:40) Bye.

Michael Lannon

(28:40) Bye.