Gratitude

Five things I am grateful for today: 1) slide deck in 2) going to the world bank 3) hometown coffee 4) education 5) sleep in any increment


In 2007, back in MySpace days, I started writing my status update with-
Five things I am Grateful for today: and then started filling in the list for each day.

I stopped once I fully converted over to facebook and deleted my MySpace account and then restarted with Facebook again in 2010.

I don't remember the day I began in 2007, but I do remember the mood. I was drained, emotionally exhausted and felt defeated. I don't remember the cause- maybe it was something simple like the weather-too many grey days in a row in Seattle, or maybe it was something fierce like a broken heart. I have no idea. I remember being in this mood, and turning on PBS (when tv traveled through the air and we didnt have to buy cable).

I started watching a pbs program on either how to be successful in life or how to unlock your happiness or something of this up lifting nature- and one of the keys the program touched on was the Neuroscience of gratitude and how being grateful has the highest impact on your well being and how gratitude aligns you with your success (how ever you define success).

I thought -genius- so simple. I can even do this.

So every day I was on MySpace and now facebook I usually will fill my status update on what I am grateful for. Sometimes my friends follow along and post their own grateful list on their status, sometimes they post their list on my status. Sometimes they just comment on my list- sometimes they say nothing for months and then when i see them they say something or dont- either way-its just there for a reminder of gratitude.

Tonight I got an email from a friend asking me if I would mind if she would start posting her own list on her status... And I replied "Please do!!!" I find it sweet and very silly she asked me - I think she was just being overly polite in asking- as if I own or think that a gratitude list is somehow me or mine. [I got the idea from someone really smart on PBS.] There would be nothing more that would make me happy then a world where all our Facebook statuses read a list of things we were grateful for. The power of gratitude is immense - and I would love to see gratitude flowing out of everyone.

Imagine a world that we were all consciously aware of the things were were grateful for- even starting with water-access to clean water. That thought makes me realizing how lucky I am to be in an area that has a system for delivering fresh drinking water to all my taps in my home- so many people in this world are living with out fresh drinkable water. Something happens inside of me and I get that feeling of gratitude and that immediate reaction of how can I help. In DC there is an art exhibit going on of empty school desks to represent the fact that a high volume (I forget the numbers) of kids dropping out of high school each hour. [due to my school schedule I am missing the art show]- imagine if our high schoolers knew how lucky they are to be educated. Education is not a right in many parts of the world. Some areas- women are not allowed to go to school- or maybe less severe -just discouraged.

What if we were grateful for the stuff we had?

Would we take better care of it?

Would we be more inclined to find solutions for people that don't have access/opportunity?

What if you wrote a list every day- how would you change? Would you change?

The tool of writing down three to five things you are grateful for each day has scientific evidence for improving your life! I encourage you, if you don't already - just try it out. It won't make Seattle sunny but it has for me aligned my life with my priorities and reminds me of my privilege, my responibility, my accountability and my dedication of service to make this world a better place.

Gratitude. The most powerful force for good we got. Truly.

Much love and gratitude,
Elizabeth