Dear Joshua,
I am a huge fan (and pretty consistent) with expressing my appreciation and gratitude! In your most recent book, The Joshua Diet, you explain that there is a difference. I was aware that there was a difference, but I feel that I had it backwards and so now I am confused. If I have an Appreciation list and a Gratitude list, it feels as though they are the same so much of the time. I find it distracting to sit and analyse which thing goes on which list. They seem so interchangeable and I feel some anxiety thinking that I am "doing it wrong".
Would you please walk me through the difference; How do you define each? Why is there a difference? How do I use each one differently? Is there one better used (or applied) for specific things?
With great appreciation & gratitude,
Allyson
Dear Allyson,
None of it matters. If you want to be grateful for something, then you should be and that is perfect. If you want to appreciate something, then you can do that and it will grow. But here is how we would describe it.
You might be grateful that you survived a car accident and appreciate the new way you appreciate life as a result. What you appreciate will grow. It will get bigger. You may not appreciate the car accident because you certainly don't want any more of those, but you are grateful for the experience and you can see now that it was not a bad thing because it allowed you to change your direction in life.
Gary had a major car accident when he was in college. It wrecked his brand new car. He loved that car, but he hated the job he had to do to pay for the car. So the accident relieved him of the car and the job and he was so much happier as a result. He received exactly what he wanted. He eventually became grateful for the experience.
You appreciate that which you want to grow. You can appreciate that your mate loves you and the love will grow. You can appreciate certain aspects of your home and those things will get better and become more. You can appreciate the abundance in your life. You can appreciate the freedom that you enjoy. All of these things you appreciate will grow.
You can be grateful for things that are coming, but have not yet manifested in your reality. You can be grateful to the universe for bringing them to you. You can be grateful to your inner self for guiding you and you can appreciate your ability to receive that guidance. You can be grateful to us for answering your questions and appreciate the love that is offered in the answers. You can appreciate your physical and nonphysical senses and be grateful that you know how to use them in this illusion of physical reality.
In the end, it matters not how you define gratitude and appreciation, because as long as you are focused on what you like, what you prefer, what you think is good, does it really matter if you created the thing or if the thing was given to you? After all, you create your reality so in essence, you brought forth all the good things that exist in your life. You can appreciate your powers of manifestation or you can thank the universe for all the gifts it has bestowed on you. Really, it is simply a matter of perspective and our goal was to get you and everyone else to think about gratitude and appreciation a little bit more. We are successful!
With our love, appreciation and gratitude,
We are Joshua.
