Quality of Life - What's All This Talk About Gratitude?

Yesterday my husband and I went swimming in a lake about 30 miles north of the city.  While we were sitting out on the raft looking around at all of the trees it dawned on me how I hadn't really thought much about what I was thankful for in my life.  When I first began to read all of the research on gratitude and how it can shift your emotions into a positive state I began to stop myself a few times a week and focus on what I was thankful for in my life.  I realized at that moment how I had drifted away from practicing this. As I sat on the raft I began to look around at the trees, the sky and water and to think about how amazing our planet is in that it can sustain such a wide variety of plant and animal life including humans!  I felt grateful to be a part of it.

Later on in the evening I was reading an article in the New York Times about Ringo turning 70, they also listed a bunch of other people who will soon be turning 70.  I thought about how I was healthy right now in middle age and I felt grateful for my health.

One important point about practicing gratitude whether you keep a gratitude journal or take time to think about what you are grateful for is that you want to "keep it real." It is not the kind of exercise you go into by repeating all of the things you 'should' be grateful for in a mechanical way.  That isn't going to shift you into feeling positive emotions but will turn into some kind of beating yourself up for not being grateful defeating the whole purpose of the exercise.

Remember you can choose the smallest thing such as being grateful for a pair of shoes you love, the look of love in your child's eyes, two feet you can walk on anything.  The important point is for you to experience a genuine feeling of gratitude at that moment!  Take some time right now and write down 2 things you are thankful for!

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.  ~Epictetus

About this Author

Donna Deming, LMSW, Life Coach

Visit my website: http://www.BreakThroughLifeCoaching.net to learn about life coaching and to sign up for a complimentary session.

Credentials: Master of Social Work from New York University, a certificate in Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and trained in life coaching at MentorCoach.

The next workshop titled "It's Not About the Diet" begins July 26, 2010 and runs for 8 weeks at a cost of $139. Please visit my website to learn more and to sign-up for the workshop.

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