What's The Connection between a grateful state of mind and happiness? Is gratitude good for your health? Are grateful people more optimistic? Do they acknowledge a higher power for good in their lives? Yes! say a majority of Americans (polled by spirituality.com in September 2003).

In this nationwide sample, a whopping 97 percent feel a significant level of gratitude, with 68 percent calling themselves "extremely grateful."

But there's more to it than feelings. Consistently grateful people, according to the poll, openly show their gratitude on a regular basis with actions that range from verbal, written, or monetary expressions of thanks to giving thanks in private prayer.

It's obvious that regardless of economic station, gratitude makes people feel rich. They feel in possession of tangible goodness. They embody the wisdom in the old saying: "Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty."

Could it be that wealth is actually a spiritual condition, the natural flow of goodness emanating from the divine Source of all existence? If so, then the sense of wealth that grateful people feel resonates with the richness of the spiritual substance underlying everything. In the spiritual dimension there is no poverty because all space is filled with infinite goodness.

It could even be that poverty can only exist when spiritual substance is unrecognized. It's as though poverty is a conclusion drawn from a limited perception of spiritual reality's ever-present abundance.

Feeling grateful is incompatible with feeling bereft. The wealth of gratitude drives out the poverty of a limited view of existence. Gratitude is a recognition of one's connection with abundance. And this recognition tends to proliferate, leading to further discoveries of abundant goodness.

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues," claimed the Roman orator Cicero, "but the parent of all others." With each recognition of goodness we are irresistibly impelled to display more and more goodness to the world around us.

Mary Baker Eddy recognized the enriching effect of gratitude: "Are we really grateful for the good already received?" she asked. If so, "Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more" (Science and Health, p. 3).

While receiving more can certainly include an increase in life's necessities, the primary benefits of gratitude are found in a person's character. Maybe you've noticed this—grateful people tend to be just plain nicer and happier than those who aren't. And this stands to reason. If gratitude is the recognition of a connection with goodness, then this attitude would show up when dealing with others. As the survey shows, people who are grateful volunteer more and donate to benevolent causes. They are not just passive consumers of goodness, but are proactive in sharing their sense of abundance with the world.

And the beneficial effects of gratitude take a quantum leap when we focus not only on physical well-being but also on the spiritual dimension. A state of prayerful awareness of good affords ineffable glimpses of Spirit's presence and the infinite nature of goodness. Each glimpse evaporates any sense of lack and reveals that our lives are actually the outcome of infinite goodness and are inextricably connected to it.

Imagine if everyone in the world was aware of their own permanent connection to goodness and showed it with some expression of gratitude in every interaction. The world would be transformed.

So, how will you transform the world with your gratitude today?

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