Self-gratitude - gratitude towards yourself

Gratitude is not a rational emotion at times. We are grateful to the rock for not falling on our head. We are grateful for God doing good for us though in reality his intention is to help others and we just get benefits as part of that plan. Getting good things from him does not make it about us.

People seem to want something to be always grateful to.

People forget that gratitude can be you being grateful to yourself for what you have made yourself and for your achievements.

This would appear to make no sense.  It doesn't if you define good as what happens around you and which reaches into your life. 

But in fact gratitude is a trait not an action.  It is not saying the thanks.  Saying the thanks is not gratitude but an expression of a trait that is there already.

You are grateful for how you let others help you.  That is it. You are grateful for your trait though you imbed it.

Unless you are thankful for letting this happen you cannot be thankful to anyone or anything.

 If you can love yourself, why can't you be grateful to yourself? You can have compassion on yourself as if it is one person being compassionate towards another. Your mind is able to treat you as it would another person.  Right now you depend on the person you were a second ago.  That you is in the past and is now functionally the same as another person.

People can and do feel grateful to themselves. When time passes, it is like the you a minute ago was a different person. You cannot control your past self any more. All you have is the present self. Being grateful to yourself makes sense.

And you have to be grateful to yourself in order to allow yourself to be grateful to anybody else.  Unless you are grateful to yourself you will never be able to welcome the gratitude you get from others.

Before you can accept a gift or accept anybody's love for you, you have to feel grateful! Gratitude is not meant to appear only WHEN people are doing good for you and/or AFTER.

You know that you can find good in all that happens - even if it tiny. So be thankful for that good before it happens. Your joy in life will then come easy.

It is more important to be thankful for your wisdom and power to take that approach than it is for anything in particular.