Cultivating an attitude of gratitude, as they say in 12-step circles, is a key to recovery from addiction. Beyond that, reserchers have found that being thankful produces a treasure trove of benefits, from increasing your viral resistance to reducing your stress hormones. Grateful people, they say, live longer, feel happier, and have more successful lives. According to Dr. Robert Emmons, author of
Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, any of us can develop gratitude.
Some of the ways we can do this:
Keep a daily gratitude journal in which you make note of all the good things and the gifts that have come your way that day.
Promise yourself to practice gratitude regularly.
Focus on the good things that others have done for you. This makes us realize how interdependent we are and makes us realize that we are loved.
Learn to develop a language of gratitude rather than a language of complaint. Ask your friends and family to help you. It's often hard to see for ourselves how much we're complaining.
Use your senses to come into the present and appreciate the small gifts in the moment – the smile of a child, the smell of your first cup of coffee in the morning, the beauty of a sunset.
Take grateful actions. Smile, perform random acts of kindness, help a stranger.
I might add to the list that we give thanks for the challenges we face every day, too, for in them we can learn how to improve our lives.
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