Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very
Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude. --A.A.
Milne
10 Ways to Become More Grateful
--by Robert
Emmons, syndicated from Greater
Good, Nov 17, 2015
1.
Keep a Gratitude Journal. Establish
a daily practice in which you remind yourself of the gifts, grace, benefits, and
good things you enjoy. Setting aside time on a daily basis to recall moments of
gratitude associated with ordinary events, your personal attributes, or valued
people in your life gives you the potential to interweave a sustainable life
theme of gratefulness.
2.
Remember the Bad. To be grateful in
your current state, it is helpful to remember the hard times that you once
experienced. When you remember how difficult life used to be and how far you
have come, you set up an explicit contrast in your mind, and this contrast is
fertile ground for gratefulness.
3.
Ask Yourself Three Questions. Utilize the meditation technique known as
Naikan, which involves reflecting on three questions: “What have I received from
__?”, “What have I given to __?”, and “What troubles and difficulty have I
caused?”
4.
Learn Prayers of Gratitude. In many
spiritual traditions, prayers of gratitude are considered to be the most
powerful form of prayer, because through these prayers people recognize the
ultimate source of all they are and all they will ever be.
5.
Come to Your Senses.Through our senses—the ability to touch, see, smell,
taste, and hear—we gain an appreciation of what it means to be human and of what
an incredible miracle it is to be alive. Seen through the lens of gratitude, the
human body is not only a miraculous construction, but also a gift.
6.
Use Visual Reminders.Because the two primary obstacles to gratefulness are
forgetfulness and a lack of mindful awareness, visual reminders can serve as
cues to trigger thoughts of gratitude. Often times, the best visual reminders
are other people.
7.
Make a Vow to Practice Gratitude. Research shows that making an oath to
perform a behavior increases the likelihood that the action will be executed.
Therefore, write your own gratitude vow, which could be as simple as “I vow to
count my blessings each day,” and post it somewhere where you will be reminded
of it every day.
8.
Watch your Language. Grateful
people have a particular linguistic style that uses the language of gifts,
givers, blessings, blessed, fortune, fortunate, and abundance. In gratitude, you
should not focus on how inherently good you are, but rather on the inherently
good things that others have done on your behalf.
9.
Go Through the Motions. If you go
through grateful motions, the emotion of gratitude should be triggered. Grateful
motions include smiling, saying thank you, and writing letters of gratitude.
10.
Think Outside the Box. If you want
to make the most out of opportunities to flex your gratitude muscles, you must
creatively look for new situations and circumstances in which to feel
grateful.
