PRACTICE MAKES HAPPINESS

Is gratitude innate? It seems as though we must learn it. Or is it our aspiration for gratitude that is key? Perhaps we all naturally need gratitude but we still need to evolve to a level where we can feel it, act upon it, and reap its benefits.

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Perhaps that’s why we need to work, first to understand what gratitude is, how it works, and how we can benefit from it. And then, we need to practice gratitude -- throughout our lives.

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Most religions promote the practice of gratitude -- gratitude to a deity in the form of prayer and worship, as well as gratitude in the form of kindness and charity to each other. As the world becomes more secular, people are less exposed to the messages, rituals, and practice of gratitude.

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But the trend is reversing.

 

Recently there’s been a huge growth in scientific, psychological and social research devoted to the practice of gratitude. There’s even a multi-million dollar research grant competition focusing on gratitude, that’s been established in the US.

 

We covered some of the key findings in our post, The New Science of Gratitude.

 

 

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Perhaps the most profound is that studies are confirming what some of the great spiritual traditions have known for millennia: Happiness = Gratitude. And the more you practice gratitude, the happier you will be.

 

“It is not happiness that makes us grateful.

It's gratefulness that makes us happy.”

 

- David Steindl-Rast

 

As we surveyed the landscape, we gathered ideas and practices, both traditional and new, that impacted us.

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David Steindl-Rast promotes three simple gratitude practices:

 

• STOP – Build in ‘stop signs’ in your busy day that remind you and give you space to feel gratitude. We ran a story, with apps that can assist.

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• LOOK – This is really about paying attention, not only to what you see around you, but also to sounds, smells, tastes, and touch of all that surrounds you.

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• GO – Let your gratitude move you to act. Do something beautiful with your gifts.

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Gratitude is the recognition and rediscovery of your life's gifts.

We found some additional practices that can add valuable dimension to our gratitude experience.

1) Freeze-frame it.

Record your gratitude. Convert your gratitude RAM to your soul’s hard drive.

Oprah Winfrey recently revealed to her fans that every evening, for the last 17 years, she’s been documenting what she’s grateful for in a journal.

2) Create a gratitude list.

A gratitude list helps us to recognize “ordinary” gifts. These are gifts that perhaps matter most.

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3) Change your lens.

 

• Put on the macro lens: in the grand scheme

• Flip it to the micro lens: if you zoom up closely

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4) Ask three questions

 

• What/who has surprised me?

• What/who has touched me?

• What/who has inspired me?

 

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Toni Powell, filmmaker and founder of Goodness Gracious Me and the 30-Day Gratitude Challenge developed some simple, even somewhat quirky personal practices that work well for her. For example, she:

 

• stops and thanks all the unknown people who worked to bring food to her table

• pays for two extra cups of coffee when she buys one for herself

• writes love letters to strangers and puts them in random places

• buys a bunch of flowers at the supermarket and gives them to the first person she sees

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For Powell, they are ‘little reminders, little rituals that are easy and fun and keep reminding me that I’ve been given a gift. So buying a gift reminds me that I have been given a gift.

 

Take on Powell’s 30-day gratitude challenge.

Photo: Nic McPhee.

“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.”

 

― Maya Angelou

 

 

“When a person doesn’t have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity.”

 

― Elie Wiesel

 

 

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

 

― Cicero

 

 

“Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough”

 

― Oprah Winfrey

 

 

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

 

― Marcel Proust

 

 

"Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind."

 

― Lionel Hampton

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“Nature's beauty is a gift that cultivates appreciation and gratitude.”

― Louie Schwartzberg

 

“Thanks to those who hated me, you made me a stronger person. Thanks to those who loved me, you made my heart grow fonder. Thanks to those who envied me, you made my self esteem increase. Thanks to those who cared, you made me feel important. Thanks to those who entered my life, you made me who I am today. Thanks to those who left, you showed me that nothing lasts forever. Thanks to those who stayed, you showed me the true meaning of friendship.”

― Ritu Ghatourey

 

And try this powerful guided meditation, in which Agapi Stassinopoulos takes you through a three-minute gratitude practice.

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"Practice giving things away, not just things you don't care about, but things you do like. Remember, it is not the size of a gift, it is its quality and the amount of mental attachment you overcome that count. So don't bankrupt yourself on a momentary positive impulse, only to regret it later. Give thought to giving. Give small things, carefully, and observe the mental processes going along with the act of releasing the little thing you liked."

 

Robert Thurman

 

Read more about Gratitude, as it relates Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact in our posts throughout this week, including New Ideas about Gratitude, The New Science of Gratitude, Food Gratitude, But You Did, & I Thank You, Top 10 Thanks for Travel, and Gratitude Boomerangs.

 

Get busy and enter the BN Competitions, Our theme this week is Gratitude. Send in your images and ideas. Deadline is 12.01.13.

 

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Also, check out our special competition: The Most Beautiful Sound in the World! We are thrilled about this effort, together with SoundCloud and The Sound Agency. And we can’t wait to hear what you’ve got!