Deep down we all know that happiness can be found in simple and everyday things, yet we tend to overlook them because we’re just too busy. But if we write down those little moments of joy, we start to notice them more often.
Reflecting on the little things you are grateful for: there is plenty of scientific evidence to show that this is not only fun, but also beneficial. For example, it seems that gratitude gives rise to behavior that we regard as moral and good. Grateful people are more caring, more compassionate and more fair, and have more respect for others.
Robert Emmons, gratitude expert and professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, in the US, believes gratitude boosts energy and inspiration. ‘Gratitude provides life with meaning by encapsulating life itself as a gift,’ he writes. So you focus on what you do have instead of what you don’t have. That generates happiness and gives you comfort during difficult times.
A few things you can focus on to give yourself a boost of gratitude:
- Beautiful sentences or phrases that you read or heard this week
- Something good that happened unexpectedly
- Something you’re really looking forward to
- A fear you successfully overcame
- A song that makes you happy
- Things that worked out really well this month
- These tips on gratitude and joy can be found in Issue 26, where they also come with a diary page to fill in what you can be grateful for.
Text Marije van der Haar-Peters Photography Jeremy Bishop/Unsplash.com
