Gratitude

Sooooo, most of my life I’ve been told one way or another that gratitude is important. But I didn’t get it. I was raised in a religion where every prayer had some measure of “thanks” expressed, but that was a rote, thoughtless thing for me. I did have a few occasions where I meant what I said and that genuine appreciation was quite different and more interesting. I am glad that I was introduced to the principle of gratitude so early on, even if I couldn’t see it for what it was until a couple months ago.

There are a multitude of studies out there examining life satisfaction and happiness. One of the biggest correlations they agree on is gratitude! So cool. And I love that it’s as simple as one step, one change, one habit. Gratitude is something completely within our control and it makes a big difference. Depending on your life circumstances it is easier said than done to be grateful. Despite that, I think it’s so empowering just knowing that feeling better is only a couple moments away.

Gratitude is a practice. I am only just starting, and so far the 20ish times I’ve set aside a minute or two to acknowledge the good, I feel even more grateful. That might not make sense. Basically, when I practice it, I look at today. Maybe yesterday and tomorrow. I remind myself of the good times, the good people, and the good feelings. Focusing like this increases my awareness of these good things and I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I find that doing this casually, even just noticing one thing at a time makes me smile. Like this morning for instance. I set myself last night to take care of 2 errands first thing today. And I did it! I’m grateful to myself for accomplishing these things and for how smoothly it went. I interacted with a few friendly people and reminded myself of that. That is enough for me to elevate my day just that little bit more.

Now, one thing I haven’t really done is the harder bit. Being grateful for the “bad”. I put it in quotes because I don’t like categorizing such things right away. I’ve had a lot of pain and sadness in my life, and in hindsight a good portion of it has been so vital in giving me wisdom and insight. I’ve learned a ton from the “failures” and “mistakes”. And I know it might be trite, but everything that has happened to me has brought me to where I am now. And I like where I am now. Would I go into the past and change things? Most certainly. But because I can’t, I choose to believe that all of it had a hand in making me who I am. It is infinitely more difficult to practice gratitude when life feels bad and things are catastrophic. I don’t know how I’ll do it myself. Life has been really good lately. My hope is that making this a regular habit now will persist into darker times and remind me it won’t all be “bad” forever. I talked about transience in another entry, and I believe that’s a big part of being thankful no matter what. It’ll turn around. It can take yeeears. But it’ll get better.

It all builds on each other, I find. Gratitude alone is not a cure-all for life’s woes. It enriches my day every time I remember to do it, and then I carry on doing my best to make my life better in other ways. I don’t consider myself a very spiritual person. However, there have been many times where I will just feel that my sense of peace, contentment, or whatever is going on comes from someplace a little deeper than my mind. Maybe it’s my heart, idk the “science” of heart emotions. And maybe it’s my soul. Either way, I am grateful that I am learning how to be grateful.