Intentionally Choosing Gratitude

Every time Oprah advised keeping a gratitude journal, I rolled my eyes. It seemed easy to be grateful with her influence, wealth, and comforts. I'm dubious about all the Ted Talkers who spout gratitude... It's easy to talk, yet do they really "do" gratitude as a "real" thing - a thing with legitimate meaning and purpose, as opposed to just saying the words? Do they actually feel grateful? What does "grateful" even feel like, anyway?

As a training professional who seeks to change behaviors through education, I've been exploring neuroplasticity. And I've been actively practicing mindfulness for about a year and a half. Now I get it. The two work together. Mindfulness reprograms malleable brain networks when you regularly refocus your thoughts. And gratitude can be incorporated into mindful intention. You don't even have to keep a journal unless a writing routine helps you remember to do it!

If you intentionally choose gratitude in your daily mindfulness practice, you begin to retrain your brain, and everything changes - not just your outlook, but your physical health as well. Take time this week to look for so much recent research correlating gratitude and mindfulness with physical health!

If you're a skeptic as I was only a couple of years ago, I can't convince you that it works; one must make up their mind to feel true appreciation in the core of who they are. I can't tell anyone how "grateful" feels but make no mistake: gratitude is not just saying thankful words. (However, speaking the words without feeling them is a place to begin if it's all a person can do.) One must commit to recognizing, honoring, and being thankful for everything in their world. Regularly. In the moment. Several times a day.

And it's not just about being grateful for the good stuff. With practice and growth, one learns to acknowledge the blessings that come alongside the crummy stuff, too. With all the unrest in the world, it is essential to learn to see through the yuck to find the good. Identifying and appreciating the good will produce change far sooner, and longer-lasting, than depreciating oneself, their world, or other people.

Today, I am grateful that I've learned to accept gratitude as something that requires discipline to manifest and maintain. Oprah was right. And even though money doesn't buy happiness, I still envy the cozy backyard where she hosts her Super Soul Sunday interviews.

Years ago, I read "Desiderata," and it started me down a path toward acceptance and living fully. Rather than share the list of things I'm personally thankful for this holiday season, I leave you with the following options to ponder on your own:

This year, can you be grateful for...

• peace in silence?
• your achievements and plans?
• your career, however humble - a real possession in changing times?
• virtue that exists?
• love that is as perennial as the grass?
• the counsel of the years?
• the things of youth?
• strength of spirit that shields you in misfortune?
• wholesome discipline?
• being a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars?
• simply being here?
• realizing that the universe is unfolding as it should?
• peace in your soul despite the noisy confusions of life?
• this beautiful world, even with all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams?

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.