Gratitude

Declaring gratitude is connected to joy and peace.

TODO: expand on this more

Practicing Gratitude

Here are some things I’ve learned about practicing gratitude.

1. I suggest starting first by writing down something you’re grateful for each day.

   Its true that you can declare gratitude about anything, but doing so risks making the exercise feel mechanical especially when first learning how to practice gratitude.

   Instead, wait for the thing you feel grateful for to come to you. You’ll know if its right when you resonate with it.

2. We tend to think about all the things that we are not happy about and wish to change. And it feels as if the list of things that we can be grateful for is dwarfed by all the things we are unhappy about.

   But I realized there really is also an equally long list of things that we can be grateful for.

   The list of things we dislike and want to change just seems a lot longer because that’s what we’ve practiced noticing.

   Hence, the practice of gratitude is about learning how to recognize what we already have and will receive, to learn how to make new assessments.

   Gratitude really is a choice.

3. The real test is to practice gratitude even in situations that seem incompatible with feeling grateful.

   For example, I feel grateful for my anger at xyz because it allows me to recognize when my boundaries have been violated. I am grateful for sadness, which stands witness and shows me what I’ve lost.

4. Gratitude doesn’t make “difficult” emotions go away. But it is a reminder of what you do have.