Rick Hansen, the author of Hardwiring Happiness, writes about it as well as many other authors. There's a million and one topic specific journals to pick from.
It's gratitude.
The power of positive thinking.
Being thankful for what you have, instead of what you wish you had.
Overall, gratitude has proven to change our outlook; change our perception. In some ways, it almost sounds too easy. 'Oh, so if I'm just more thankful for everything, I'll be happier?' In other ways, it's not as easy as it sounds. 'I have to maintain that perception?'
Gratitude is more than just picking out things 'you are grateful for. And at the same time, it's being grateful for everything that you have. For instance, we can be grateful that we have fresh air to breathe and we recognize that this is a good thing. However, we really need to be grateful for fresh, clean, clear, invigorating air around us that we can breathe in deeply and it feels wonderful having it expand and be held in our lungs. Focusing on all aspects of the air and why we love it so much adds to the value of the gratitude.
Why does it work? It works in multiple ways. Rick Hansen specifically notes in his book that doing this daily increases the amount of time per day that you experience positive emotions, leading to a chain effect of your brain learning (re-hardwiring) to hold positive emotions more often.
But he isn't the only one posing this. Even this morning, I was reading a post on Facebook that a friend shared talking about confirmation bias. Our brain seek out more information about what we believe to be true or what we focus on more. So we if focus on negative, we see negative things that reinforce that belief. If we change our focus (sometimes purposely and intentionally) to a more positive focus, we see more of the positive.
This means if we focus on gratitude, we will find more things to be grateful for. When we have more things to be grateful for, we are happier.
So, how can you incorporate this into your daily life? Here are some ways you can do this:
At the end of each day, reflect back over the day and highlight at least 3 positive things/things to be grateful for.
In the moment that you realize some is positive and good, take an extra moment to sink into it and really take it in. Say in the moment how grateful you are for whatever it is.
Some people prefer to start their morning with gratitude. You can get up 5 minutes earlier and set aside time to reflect with your morning coffee (or tea or water).
Get a gratitude journal! There really are a multitude to choose from.
What are ways you incorporate gratitude into your day?
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