Radical Gratitude

In 2012, I posted an article on gratitude. In the article, I mentioned using a gratitude journal to help recognize moments that you are grateful for. Since then, I mentioned the gratitude journal three other times. I use the journal several times a day to recognize all the good in my life. I have always felt I am a positive person, but there are still times when griping and venting is just too easy of an outlet.

Today I read an article by David Cain on Radical Gratitude. It takes the notion of being grateful to a completely new level. 

“The idea sounds ridiculous, and even hopeless, but in practice it’s quite easy, and immediately rewarding. You just ask yourself, “Can I be grateful for this too?” In my short experience doing this, the brain has a way of coming up with good reasons why yes, you can.

This practice reveals a lot about our shortsightedness. We have a rather ridiculous tendency to believe everything is either strictly good for us or bad for us, and that we can reliably determine which one it is, in the instant that thing happens.”

I would encourage you to read the article by Mr. Cain. I plan to implement the idea and see what happens. In fact, this afternoon, something happened that I wasn’t too happy about. The minute I noticed my feelings of ‘this is bad’, I commented, “Wow, I am grateful for this happening because …” Just saying that changed my disposition, and, in turn, my outlook on the event.

I will probably fail several times a day trying to implement this new ‘radical’ way of viewing my world, but failure isn’t so bad. It opens the door to a greater understanding of what works and what doesn’t work. Yet, the idea is so contrarian as to how I currently operate, it will be interesting to see the results.

Photo: http://everydaygyaan.com/