Gratitude
Life starts with the appreciation of it. Joy is what happens when we make a stop to recognize how good things really are, when we start focusing on all the things we have, rather than all the things we don’t. Gratitude involves feeling and expressing a deep sense of thankfulness in life, and more specifically, taking the time to genuinely express appreciation to others.
The regular practice of noticing and recording the good things in our day invites even more joy and gratitude into our life and the lives of those around us. This simple act changes everything!
It can be as simple as just writing down one thing we are grateful for; it doesn’t matter how big or small it is. What matters is that it’s genuine gratitude, that it’s ours, and it comes from the heart.
Benefits of gratitude:
- Promotes to actively observe positive things reducing our default negative bias.
- Promotes the savoring of a positive life experience.
- Boosts self-esteem and encourages moral behavior.
- Ameliorates stress and trauma, increasing resilience.
- Helps to build and strengthen social connections.
Grateful people experience a variety of positive emotions, and those emotions inspire them to act in more virtuous ways, humbler, more persistent, and kinder.
