The Art of Gratitude
About a month ago I was out running errands, like normal. As I left the store and spotted my car, I couldn’t help but laugh a bit. I felt so grateful for a car that I loved, and especially for my windshield sunshades that make it look like I drive Sally, from the movie, Cars.
Seriously.
I love them so much!!
I love walking out of anywhere and seeing “Sally” waiting for me in the parking lot. It’s such a small thing, but those sunshades bring a sense of gratitude front and center in my life. And as someone who easily sees all the negative stuff, I can use all the help I can get.
Have you ever heard the advice to have an attitude of gratitude? Maybe you’ve been told to keep a gratitude journal, or simply to be grateful? I would bet we all have—repeatedly. So why are we not better skilled in the art of gratitude?
I have some ideas:
our brains are wired to see what is going wrong, not what is going right. It is our default setting.
we cannot find things to be grateful for.🧐 Mistakenly, we believe gratitude will naturally occur when everything in our life improves.
the idea that gratitude would be helpful is too simplistic—life is complicated, and practicing gratitude sounds elementary, even ridiculous. It may work for little kids, but not in the real world.
in the world of comparison, it is MUCH easier to focus on what we are lacking instead of what we have in abundance. And most of us choose the easy path every time.
Well.
I think we could do better, and be better. Yes, our brains tend to lean toward the negative—but we have the ability to redirect those thoughts. We have a choice.
The art of gratitude is a skill. This is fantastic news because skills can be learned, developed, and practiced! And when we practice a skill over and over again, we improve. Guaranteed improvement.
Isn’t that amazing? 🤩
A few weeks ago, I got the chance to practice gratitude myself. I was driving on the freeway, headed to help a friend in need, and I didn’t want to go. My attitude was poor. The traffic was bad, no one was driving well, and I was irritated.
The cars had slowed to a snail pace, and I looked up at the freeways above me. As I did, I remembered a cartoon from my childhood where Goofy is living in a big city with freeways in every direction, crossing on top of each other in the most magnificent way.
I LOVED that cartoon, and watched it repeatedly. Growing up in small town Idaho, I used to dream of living in a city with freeways and cars and all the city lights.
All of a sudden, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. I was living the life I had dreamed about as a little girl!
It was a profound moment for me. Practicing gratitude changed my outlook that day, and my overall attitude flipped like a switch.
The art of gratitude is a skill…and it takes practice to get really good at it.
So let’s get practicing.
