Gratituesday 10.11.22 - The Power of Gratitude

I am currently reading ‘Atlas of the Heart’ by Brené Brown. And if you are one of my current counseling couples, you certainly know that because I mention it in our sessions, email links to the book or HBO series or send you passages or chapters to review. Today as I walked to drop off my vegetable scraps for compost collection, I listened to the chapter on ‘Places We Go When Life is Good.’ This included among others - Joy, Happiness, Calm, Contentment, and of course Gratitude. I’m sure there will be a post on CALM soon, but since it’s Gratituesday, I thought I’d share the power of GRATITUDE.

Brown writes, “There is overwhelming evidence that gratitude is good for us physically, emotionally, and mentally. There’s research that shows that gratitude is correlated with better sleep, increased creativity, decreased entitlement, decreased hostility and aggression, increased decision-making skills, decreased blood pressure—the list goes on. The research is persuasive, and I’ve read countless research articles and books on gratitude, but I still struggled to understand exactly why it helps so much. Until I read this by Robert Emmons. Emmons is the ‘world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude.’ He is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and the founding editor in chief of The Journal of Positive Psychology. He writes,

Research on emotion shows that positive emotions wear off quickly. Our emotional systems like newness. They like novelty. They like change. We adapt to positive life circumstances so that before too long, the new car, the new spouse, the new house—they don’t feel so new and exciting anymore.

But gratitude makes us appreciate the value of something, and when we appreciate the value of something, we extract more benefits from it; we’re less likely to take it for granted.

In effect, I think gratitude allows us to participate more in life. We notice the positives more, and that magnifies the pleasures you get from life. Instead of adapting to goodness, we celebrate goodness. We spend so much time watching things—movies, computer screens, sports—but with gratitude we become greater participants in our lives as opposed to spectators.”

Gosh, I love that. And not only because UC Davis is my alma mater! I love that the power of gratitude is in its proactiveness. That as we reflect on what’s good in our lives that we dig a little deeper. We consider ourselves in the world. And speaking of reflection, how about those weekly lists. The gratitudes were super easy this week since my brain was already there. Here’s to continue to celebrate the good!

Gratitudes

1. Open windows

2. Warm sweaters

3. Health insurance

4. The support of my parents - and when they drive me to out of town weddings

5. Hot coffee - each and every morning, baby!

Celebrations

1. Getting a manicure/pedicure

2. Picking up my connection calendar after 2 months

3. Finishing an Emma Staub novel and starting one by Jesmyn Ward - in addition to listening to Atlas of the Heart!

4. Having time to cook some hearty meals

5. Receiving some lovely thank you notes, and enthusiastic testimonials from my recent wedding couples

Desires

1. Write an updated marketing plan for my business - with help from a SCORE mentor

2. A massage this week, since I missed one last month

3. To buy and hang some plants in the window in my kitchen

4. For more yoga students

5. To return to writing my book on premarital counseling