I’m sure you’ve heard about how important gratitude is. That’s not just a made up idea to get people to be nicer. Being grateful has a physical and emotional effect on your body and overall life. Though many studies have been done on this subject, Professor of Psychology, Robert Emmons is acknowledged as the pre-eminent expert on gratitude. He’s done experiments on gratitude for more than a decade and the results are aahhh-mazing!

“Gratitude is one of the few things that can measurably heal, energize, and change people’s lives. It is a turning of the mind, now what I don’t have, but what, I have already.” Dr. Robert Emmons. 

It’s a scientific fact that people who express and feel gratitude on a daily basis are happier and happier people, live longer, have less illness, sleep better, and are more resilient, have better relationships, are overall healthier, have better outlooks, make better decisions, exercise more (because they want to), have better self-esteem…just to name a few.  

The title alone implies how easy this challenge is. Just write down one thing a day that your’re grateful for. The only requirement is that this activity must be done with thought. 

You must FEEL it deeply.

None of this quickly writing down the standards to fill a slot. You have to ponder your choices and they have to be things that make your heart swell up when you think of them. That’s what true gratitude feels like. 

I know that your grateful for your kids, your spouse, or your family, God, job etc. Those are givens. Try to go deeper with this challenge. For example rather than “family” choose a specific family member and WHY you feel grateful, i.e. I’m grateful for my son because of how kind he is to strangers and never judges anyone. Or, I’m grateful for my husband, because when I’m feeling bad he always has a goofy joke to make me feel better. Get the picture?

Remember, you can’t just think about what to write down. You have to FEEL it.

Namaste

Jessica