Ancient Wisdom | Gratitude is Happiness
I have a daily journal process that begins with my thoughts of gratitude. I have tried several formats for this practice offered by various gurus, apps, and articles on the topic. The configuration I settled on has served me for many years. That was a surprise. Gratitude served ME, helped me, elevated my outlook, deepened my connections, made my daily existence sparkle.
Science tells me being grateful actually alters my brain chemistry. Or is it my brain structure itself?
Whichever the case, I believe it.
At some point, I realized if in the next ten minutes I am grateful, joyful, loving - then I am happy for ten minutes. And so it follows, If for the rest of my life, I am grateful, joyful, loving - well, I’ve just built myself a whole big happy life!
Being grateful = Being happy.
There are moments, days, and protracted periods in my life when it would be easy for me to have a negative lens. What saves me is most often this “counting my blessings.” Furthermore, doing it on paper allows me to dwell in that glow of thankfulness and let it wash away some of the mud.
If I had just read Seneca sooner, I could have saved a lot of wasted time. He figured it out over 2,000 years ago.
“In all things we should try to make ourselves be as grateful as possible. For gratitude is a good thing for ourselves, in a manner in which justice, commonly held to belong to others, is not. Gratitude pays itself back in large measure.”