"Gratitude is a positive feeling or attitude towards something that someone else has done."
How do you approach gratitude? To practice feeling gratitude?
I myself instinctively thought it was a bit ridiculous. I immediately put up a resistance to it. Why resistance, you might ask? I love meditating and doing ceremonies and rituals in everyday life. Why did I have a feeling of resistance to this form of practice? Maybe it felt a bit flat and contrived. Maybe it felt too simple.
But if I think carefully about the times in my life when I experience calm and total satisfaction, I can point out certain recurring "symptoms":
- The body feels warm and soft
- The mind is calm and compliant
- It radiates from the heart and I feel gratitude
Aha, gratitude! Maybe gratitude is the way to experience this positive feeling of calm and total satisfaction? When I'm in my most wonderful flow, I just feel gratitude. And from that end, I started experimenting more with gratitude. As a way to put myself in a more comfortable state, far from stress and exhaustion.
Practice being grateful
That's why I thought I'd try to practice gratitude more, as a way to gently control my thoughts. I can't bring myself to add time-consuming exercises to my life. Instead, I do it in the simplest way possible. As soon as I wake up, I get to grips with my thoughts. Aha, my head starts ticking right away with things I should accomplish during the day? Gently stop your thoughts and ask them to hold back for a bit. The first thing I want to think about when I wake up is instead what I'm grateful for.
I choose three things to be grateful for. It can be big or small. Often I feel a resonance in my heart for what my brain chooses to formulate as gratitude. Later in the day, I can connect to the gratitude. It becomes a way to remind myself of what is important in my life.
Why is gratitude important?
Research says that when we focus on gratitude, we become more aware of the world around us. About all the amazing people, animals and nature that contribute to our lives. In every step I take, there is something or someone to be grateful for. In this way, we can take a step outside ourselves and perhaps let go of heavy thoughts, worries and stress for a while. And the more we practice, the better we get at it.
By practicing gratitude, we can counteract our negativity and at the same time pay attention to all the positive things in our lives that we otherwise easily miss. Practicing gratitude thus becomes a shortcut to more happiness.
Robert A. Emmons, a leading gratitude researcher, has conducted several studies on the connection between health and gratitude. His research shows that gratitude increases your happiness and reduces depression. Gratitude can also lower blood pressure, improve your immune system, reduce inflammation, and more.
Emmons believes that we should just integrate gratitude into our lives, and not add another task to our lives. Here is a short video where he tells you how you can do and think about gratitude .
