Gratitude: A Life Changer
In the past few years, I began studying Positive Psychology as a side hobby. I read books and attended the Western Positive Psychology Conference at Pomona College. I even got to meet Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, the author of “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.” I’ve been a fan of his since my UCLA days. One of the most often discussed ways to create happiness in your life is the practice of Gratitude. I wrote about this in my book, Be the Dolphin: How to Live a Heart-Centered Life and am leaving an excerpt here. Read below.
Excerpt page 149:
“Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.” -Henry Ward Beecher
WHEN I WAS GROWING up, my mother had a bumper sticker that said, “Seek the good and praise it.” I don’t think I ever really got the deeper meaning of that. I grew up with positive New Age philosophy and knew that I felt better when I was positive. But it wasn’t until I started a deep gratitude practice that I realized how important that saying was. It’s basically saying to look around at your life, find what’s good, and give thanks for it.
What we focus on expands. So if you want more good in your life, focus on what is already good and acknowledge it. This tells the universe that you would like some more of that good stuff please. This “attitude of gratitude” as some call it has been an important part of my daily happiness. I look around and quite literally can make myself cry tears of gratitude at how great my life is. That doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. Being grateful is not about having life be perfect. It’s about recognizing the good and being grateful for it despite everything that is going on. I’m so grateful and feel it so deeply in my heart on a regular basis that it shifts the energy around me faster than lightning. If you want one practice that will make you happier, this is it. It’s the dolphin’s secret to happiness, no matter the life circumstance of that dolphin.
Practicing gratitude daily is like building up muscles meaning that you get better at it the more you do it. Repetition is key. Take time throughout your day to notice what is going well and what is good. If you are having a terrible, yucky day, look out the window and be thankful the sun is shining. Be thankful you had hot running water for your shower. Be thankful you had food in your fridge so you could eat this morning. Be thankful there weren’t bombs going off on your way to work or school. Be thankful you slept in a comfortable bed in a safe neighborhood. Start listing all of these things that you can start appreciating. There are many in the world who do not have these things including safe drinking water or dependable electricity. We have much to be thankful for. Tuning into that can reset our energy quickly. Once you start practicing this and list 10 to 20 things you are grateful for and feel deeply into that thankfulness, how do you feel? Do you feel calmer, more balanced? How does your outlook on the rest of you day look different than it did before?
Ways I use gratitude:
To turn my crankiness around and get back to my heart-centered self.
To go to sleep each night.
To wake up each morning.
To monitor myself to see if I need a time out to meditate (if I can’t find anything to be grateful for in my current situation, then I take a time out).
One of the best tips for cultivating GRATITUDE is to think or write down 3 things you are grateful for. You can do this in the morning, when you are cranky, or just as you are falling asleep. It will increase your happiness by leaps and bounds.
How do you use gratitude in your life? What do you do when you feel cranky and not your best self? Leave a note in the Comments.