Want to be happier? Learn to see the cup half full, rather than half empty. Count your blessings. Appreciate the positive. Retrain your brain to focus on the good. And for heaven’s sake, stop worrying.
Sounds easy right?
In a sense, it is. Oodles of research has shown that being grateful unlocks an almost magical path to happiness. In a well-documented research study titled Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life, professors Robert A. Emmons and Michael E. McCullough found that the participants who focused on the things for which they were grateful were happier, exercised more, and made greater progress toward their goals than those who did not.
So why don’t we just do that?
A few things. First, we are hard-wired to identify risks. Second, we are superstitious. We believe that we can keep bad things from happening if we follow our routines, rub our rabbit’s feet, or think really, really hard about them. Third, media feeds us a constant stream of negative news and stories.
And, finally, as people, we are always striving for forward movement. That is not a bad thing. But it is tricky to be grateful for what you have while simultaneously striving for more.
Despite all of this, it is possible to retrain your brain to focus on the positive and literally change the way you navigate the world on a day to day, real-life basis.
Ready for the secret?
Focus on the positive and be grateful.
The simplest way is to maintain a gratitude journal in which you record something for which you are grateful every day.
But here’s the key. For this to have an impact, for this practice to really begin to change your neural pathways and begin to make you happier, you must do this every day. For months. Better yet, forever.
If you are not serious about making the commitment to becoming more grateful, more appreciative and happier, the prettiest new gratitude journal or most intuitive app will not make a difference.
But if you want to change the way you perceive the world in a manner that compelling research shows is pretty much guaranteed to make you happier, start writing down one thing you are grateful for and do it every single day.
Starting today.
This month, join us as we Go Grateful.
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