Attitude for gratitude
Building the Attitude for Gratitude and understanding the different types of gratitude.
Many years ago, I was in a workshop, and at the end of the session the facilitator asked the group say one thing they are grateful for.
Oh no, I thought.
I don’t have time for this!
I groaned inside and then searched in my busy head for something, anything to be grateful for. The others in the room also seemed to struggle but then people started to stay things like; “learning from each other” “having time to think strategically”. I noticed that it was harder to think about things I am grateful when I had attitude of impatience. I took a breath and noticed myself and noticed my attitude.
I made a choice, I chose to be grateful in that moment. I can’t remember what I eventually said in the group but I know that my attitude towards the question had changed.
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates vision for tomorrow.” – Melody Beattie
Gratitude is when you feel thankful for the good things in your life. This could be the stuff we take for granted, like having a place to live, food, clean water, friends, and family. But also the things that are invisible, the ability to choose our work, to love who we like, to believe what we believe.
Gratitude is taking a moment to reflect on how good things are. Not only when something good happens, whether it's small or big, but even on the most ordinary days.
Notice what you notice.
Pay attention to your attention.
Think about your thinking.
I stood at the window in my home office on a call. I turned around and felt a moment of appreciation for the beautiful plants growing here. I was thankful to my friend who have me these plants and took this picture to express and share this with you.
I want to offer you a way of breaking down gratitude into three types of gratitude:
Appreciation- What we are grateful for
Thankful - Who we are grateful to
Expression - How we express thanks
***
So I hope this article helps you to pause to :
Notice what you pick up from the world around you, what do you filter out.
Pay attention to the way we use our attention. What do we obsess over and what do we take for granted.
Think about the thoughts that fill your mind, are they negative and judgemental or caring and supportive.
DO YO NEED SUPPORT
REACH OUT FOR COACHING AND SUPPORT FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM
Finally in case you need more convincing… here is some of the science of gratitude.
There have been many studies on the impact of gratitude:
Participants to write a few sentences each week, focusing on particular topics. One group wrote about things they were grateful for that week. A second group wrote about daily irritations or things that had displeased them, and the third wrote about events that had affected them (with no emphasis on them being positive or negative). After 10 weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives, they also exercised more and had fewer visits to the doctor.
One study tested the impact of various positive psychology interventions on 411 people, each compared with a control assignment of writing about early memories. There was a huge increace in happiness scores when they had to write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude to someone who had never been properly thanked for his or her kindness, and the benefits lasted for a month.
Another study of couples that found that individuals who took time to express gratitude for their partner not only felt more positive toward the other person, but also felt more comfortable expressing concerns about their relationship.
Managers who remember to say "thank you" to people who work for them may find that those employees feel motivated to work harder.
Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/pdfs/GratitudePDFs/6Emmons-BlessingsBurdens.pdf
There are more studies here in this article from Harvard University
