The states and traits of gratitude (DW#625)
Yesterday we talked about how focusing on gratitude even once a week can make us happier. Today, let us try and understand this a bit more.
Gratitude makes us feel more gratitude. And more gratitude means more happiness.
The truth is that the actual boost in gratitude and happiness by spending a 2-5 minutes writing a gratitude journal once a week is small. However, the state of gratitude and happiness felt during those five-minutes is enough to trigger a grateful mood.
And while we are in a grateful mood, we tend to feel gratitude more frequently. We tend to notice more things that are going well in our lives. Our focus changes from scarcity (what is missing) thinking to abundance (what we have) thinking.
In other words, the practice of gratitude triggers positive feedback loops. These feedback loops create recurring feelings of gratitude which tend to more intense and they last longer.
The repeated practice of gratitude has the power to change the initial state of gratitude into a trait of gratitude: an abiding sense of wellbeing and happiness where gratitude becomes a part of our being.
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