You might think that gratitude and appreciation are very similar and have the same spiritual benefits, but they are actually quite different.
Gratitude
The thing about gratitude is that you can apply it to something good or bad. For example, “I am so grateful my headache is gone.” That produces an emotion more like relief than joy or happiness. Gratitude promotes acceptance of what is, or what you have conquered rather than inspiring pure positive emotion.
Subtly, gratitude implies that you are “less than” and have overcome something, that you are undeserving but still grateful for the little that you have received. Even though gratitude offers a high vibration energetically, it is based more on fear than on love.
Appreciation
Appreciation is feeling pure joy, happiness, and thankfulness for something or someone. It goes deeper than just checking off a box and being relieved that a situation or circumstance exists in your experience. When you appreciate another person, you may be thankful for many aspects of their personality or behavior. Full enjoyment and recognition of all that is good about a person, place or thing is appreciation at its best.
Recognizing from a mindful state the quality and significance that something adds to your life, is the real embodiment of appreciation. When you feel appreciation, you are fully aligned with the source energy of love.
The Benefit of Appreciation Over Gratitude
Spiritual teachers often remind us about the importance of keeping a gratitude journal and adding to it every day. However, appreciation offers the highest vibrational frequency there is, equal to love. Understanding the difference between gratitude and appreciation, now it makes more sense to keep an appreciation journal instead to enjoy even more positive spiritual benefits and outcomes.
It is easier than ever to be thankful knowing the difference so you can make the switch to an appreciation list rather than gratitude and enjoy even more positive spiritual benefits and outcomes.
