Gratitude Comes From Noticing Your Life, Not From Thinking About It

13 Mar 2018 • raptitude.com

Gratitude, when we do genuinely feel it, arises from experiences we are currently having, not from evaluating our lives in our heads. When you feel lonely, for example, simply remembering that you have friends is a dull, nominal comfort compared to how wonderful it feels when one of those friends calls you out of the blue. Reflecting on the good fortune of having a fixed address is nice, but stepping inside your front door after a cold and rainy walk home is sublime.

Great read about gratitude and being grateful.

My list of tiny pleasures might not sound so thrilling to you, and that’s fine. Again, it doesn’t matter how it feels to think about it. This practice creates many private experiences of gratitude you couldn’t easily explain to another person. I love the little triangle of sun in the corner of the table, how it’s almost equilateral by chance. I love the youthful green stem of my geranium, and its fuzz of infinitesimal white hairs. The pleasure of these sights is already mine; I don’t need to convince myself that they constitute a good reason to be grateful, and certainly no one else needs to understand.