What do you have to be happy about?

(Alexandra writes:) I am going to talk for a little while about the ‘gratitude attitude’ that has been viewed by many to bring about a more positive approach to everyday life.

Many of us living in western society tend to focus on what we don’t have. And in that exercise – which can frankly dominate our day-to-day thinking if we’re not careful – we tend to ignore those amazing things we do have. So the more we can step back and examine what we already experience that’s valuable to us the better.

Here’s a list of some of the things for which you may find plenty of gratitude:

• Your health. Even if it isn’t perfect, you may be thankful for the health you have.
• Your family.
• Your freedoms (freedom of speech, etc.)
• Your memories! (Life without memories would be bizarre…)
• Your job, business or career which provides the income you need.
• Your pets or animal companions.

Set aside just 60 seconds a day

With your list of those things you are thankful for, it may be quite a good idea to take one minute per day (or more, if you wish) to review that list, to verbalize your gratitude and to really take in your thankfulness for those things that you do have.

In just 60 seconds per day, if practiced daily, you will create an attitude of gratitude which will brighten your mood and uplift your day-to-day experience of life because it allows you to refocus your attention on those things you appreciate rather than those things you might despise.

And this will result in a very real physiological and biochemical healing effect within your own body.

How gratitude becomes self-healing

Every type of energy that you express to someone else is reflected in your own inner experience. So if you express hatred toward some other person or subject matter, there is an element of that energy that is also expressed internally in that moment. To hate someone else is to subject yourself to some reflection of that own hate, in other words.

At the same time, to love something else – or to express thankfulness towards it – causes a reflection of that positive energy to be felt inside yourself, too. So the mere act of expressing gratitude is a form of self-healing.

(Tamsin writes:) Over half term, I tried the gratitude experiment. At the end of every day I wrote down three things that I was thankful for. This ranged from the materialistic value of a hot water bottle, because the heating in my house stopped working for three days, to the emotional support of friendship. I found it an interesting experience, because I had to change my thinking by coming up with three things I was grateful for that day, rather than grumbling about how much work I had to finish or that my house was cold.

Initially, it was difficult to come up with three things every day. However, persisting with the experiment, I began to think differently about how much I have, and by the end of half term I found myself automatically looking for the silver lining in negative situations.

Overall, I would recommend this gratitude experiment to other people. Focusing on the good things in your life can make the bad easier to deal with. It will only take around five minutes out of your day, and the results are worth it.