Gratitude Forwards and Backwards

We all know by now that there are significant benefits to a regular practice of gratitude.

In The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want, researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky, PhD identifies 8 ways a gratitude practice can boost our happiness.

1) It promotes the savoring of positive life experiences, which helps us extract maximum satisfaction and enjoyment of our current circumstances.

2) It bolsters self-worth and self-esteem. When we take time to focus on our accomplishments or what others have done on our behalf, we are reminded of our value in the world.

3) It serves as a coping tool during stressful times. It’s actually a natural human inclination to be grateful in difficult times. We often make note of how things could be worse.

4) Gratitude encourages moral behavior. Research shows grateful people are more likely to be aware of the kind acts of others and feel more compelled to reciprocate.

5) It builds and strengthens social bonds by producing a greater sense of connectedness to others through positive reflection.

6) Gratitude reduces our tendency to want to compare ourselves to others or envy what others have. It’s hard to be genuinely grateful for having a roof over your head and covet your neighbor’s remodeled kitchen at the same time.

7) Gratitude is incompatible with negative emotions. Try it! See if you can conjure up a sense of anger while cultivating a feeling of gratitude.

8) It counters our inclination towards taking the good that comes our way for granted over time (hedonic adaptation).

With all the goodness in gratitude, we’d be missing out if we didn’t cultivate a regular practice. We can express gratitude privately through journaling or directly to someone through a text. We can find gratitude through daily meditation or just by inhaling for a minute while taking stock of the good things in our lives. The key to receiving ongoing benefits from gratitude, Lyubomirsky suggests, is to change up our practice and to keep it meaningful.

That’s why I love the below Pinkcast from Dan Pink. Pink points out that we can find gratitude through the process of subtraction. Instead of conjuring up a list of things to be grateful for, we can pause and imagine our life without someone or something of particular importance to us. It’s finding gratitude backwards, and the practice can be powerful.

Pinkcast 3.02. Want to feel more grateful? This simple mental trick will help.

So, if your current gratitude practice is feeling boring, or if you regularly have trouble connecting to a true feeling of gratitude – try changing it up and even working backwards!

The small effort is worth the huge benefit.

In love and gratitude,

Molly