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Road to Grace

 

Extending grace is easier said than done. Being empathic and honestly seeking to experience circumstances through the eyes of someone else is no easy task either. As mentioned the other day in Extending Grace, both are seemingly rare skillsets in our current society.

But I do believe they are skillsets, meaning they can be developed and honed. You can grow in grace and empathy, even if you are like me and do not have a natural leaning toward such qualities.

The first step in developing the qualities of grace and empathy may very well be gratitude. When you are grateful for and musing on what you do not deserve, it is easier to extend to others a measure of unmerited kindness as well.

Gratitude also makes you more generous. It shifts you out of the natural human tendency to fixate on what you lack, and on to focusing on the blessings in your life instead. It moves you from a scarcity mindset to one of abundance, allowing you to consider more what you can give and less what you need to get. This others-centric viewpoint allows empathy the fertile soil it requires to take root in your mind.

Said more succinctly by Arianna Huffington, “Gratitude is the road to grace.”

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