I start this blog today with the intention to chronicle a year of daily gratitude practice. My foundation for this year-long exploration is Angeles Arrien's book Living in Gratitude.
I have been guiding and teaching gratitude classes in the Austin area for several years and have found Dr. Arrien's explorations of gratitude experiences and practices across various cultures to be quite powerful and useful. If you're still reading, my guess is that you're also interested in what a year of daily gratitude might bring for you and yours. If you'd like a copy of the book, please consider supporting my blog by ordering through the link on this page.
The International Encyclopedia of Ethics defines gratitude as "the heart's internal indicator on which the tally of gifts outweighs exchanges." In other words, when we experience gratitude, we feel grateful for unexpected gifts that come our way. When we step out of feelings of envy, lack, or entitlement, we step into the abundance that surrounds each of us in our daily lives. This is not just about having stuff, and a quick survey of this field of abundance reveals a lot of other stuff to be grateful for, most of which center on the experience of living itself and what happens when we actively live in relationship with others.
My principle goal in exploring a daily gratitude practice this year is to witness what happens to myself as I work through Dr. Arrien's year-long journey of practices consciously. I'm not expecting more stuff, but I am curious as to what shifts in my perspective through keeping a practice of cultivating the "attitude of gratitude" as a principle focus throughout the year.
Having said this, one of the principle reasons I began studying and teaching gratitude practices and experiences years ago was the empirical evidence for physical and mental health benefits laid out by positive psychologists like Dr. Robert Emmons . While gratitude has been considered a beneficial virtue for millenia, it's welcome to see the science that supports these beliefs. My interest in this journey of practice in 2013 is not so much about living longer through gratitude, but rather in seeing what's different and hopefully better in a renewed focus on gratitude throughout the year. I welcome my fellow readers to join me in this experience.
Dr. Emmons has done a lot of research on the benefits of keeping a daily gratitude journal, which can be as simple as listing five things you're grateful for. In this spirit, I'll close this inaugural post with my current Five:
1. I'm grateful for the rain which came down last night, both metaphorically cleansing away a year's passage as well as providing the Austin area with much needed water.
2. I'm grateful for so many long-missed friends and aquaintances reaching out to say hello and reconnect during last year's New Year's Eve party.
3. I'm grateful for my sweetheart Vanessa in so many ways, but I'll specify one from this morning - her agreement to accompany me on a 2 mile run to start our exercise goals for the year.
4. I'm grateful for Southern traditions of New Years Day, allowing me to enjoy collard greens both as tasty food and a reminder of prosperity, and black-eyed peas both as earthy protein and a reminder of being lucky enough to have something to nourish body and soul.
5. I'm grateful for my parents (whose house we're heading for to eat black-eyed peas). I cannot think of anyone else I would have wanted to raise and support me all of these years. May 2013 be good to all of us.
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