Practice & Develop a Strong Healthy Habit of Gratitude

I’m not a billionaire.  I’m assuredly not the financial equivalent of a Tiger Woods or a Bill Gates. Despite this fact, establishing a regular practice of being, thinking, and then feeling grateful for those things that life does give up, is well, crucial.

It’s too easy to allow ourselves to think good thoughts only when positively evaluating our situations is effortless. But this is no way to lead life. Happiness is elusive enough. At times I get down on myself despite the great life I have. I have struggled to find ways to shake off the negativity of self-loathing, self-pity and generally depressive feelings. Later, I looked for strategies and tools that would help me to keep my thinking right and not focus on what I don’t have.

I know its fashionable to conceive of ourselves as hunters. Many of us believe that we go out and get things, bring them home, and then we own them. As a mental model, this falls short and leaves us feeling bad unless we are always 100% successful. It may be more efficacious to our own emotional state to focus on what life actually provides. Life gives stuff to us even though we still have to put out effort to receive them. You know, “all in.”  It may be an important distinction to remember.

Ultimately we’re talking about “energy” and how to cultivate it. As mental models go, this may be broader and more potent. Consider the type or quality of energy we are aligning with and perpetuating by “hunting” and compare it to the gentler, more appreciative energy of feeling grateful for those things that life quietly gives up.  Again, it’s comparatively valuable to the quality of our own experience. What is the emotional climate you are creating?

Calgary Psychologists International website