If you have been following pandatechie, this may come as a setback to you. I usually write on tech, finance and lifestyle. Where does quasi spiritual concept of gratitude fit in? What is gratitude after all? So I had once read the famous book by Rhonda Byrne called “The Secret” but never paid attention to it. Until.. Now..
Recently, there was a session organized at my workplace where this concept kind of came back to me. Much harder and stronger this time. Session was taken by a lady from Juno Clinic. Full disclosure, it was one of those sessions where I had couple of other tasks in hand and had planned to multitask intermittently. But, first 5 minutes of the session caught my attention.
In this post, I want to unclutter the mess around this concept in a way a non-religious, non-spiritual person would perceive it.
What I really liked about the session was that it didn’t portray gratitude as an utopian notion. It acknowledged the fact that even if I fail to exercise gratitude in the beginning, it is abso-freakin-lutely NORMAL. Here are my learnings from the session!
What is Gratitude?
First of all, it is not equivalent of your regular ‘Thank You’. So next time you thank everyone at the end of a virtual meeting, that is NOT exactly gratitude.
From a scientific perspective, gratitude is not just an action: it is also a positive emotion that serves a biological purpose. It is a deeper appreciation for someone (or something) that produces long lasting positivity.
Jargons aside, I perceive it as as an act being thankful to every small thing in your life. An act of acknowledging events, things around you. It is about feeling abundant and bountiful. In a very common mannish example, remember how our teachers asked us to thank for a couple of seconds before we opened our lunchboxes? That is gratitude!
How to Exercise Gratitude:
So I could comprehend two techniques out of the session which were really practical:
- Gratitude Journal: There were a couple of ways to achieve this. The best one I found was to write three things you feel thankful about on ‘post-its‘ and put it in a box. This is where the doc mentioned that you may be repeating stuff early on but eventually, it will make sense.
- Gratitude Rock: Catch hold of a rock. Any shape, size would be okay. Place it in an accessible corner of your house. Whenever you touch that rock, think of something you are thankful about. Pretty handy right?
Health Benefits:
A blogpost is incomplete with WIIFM. So here are some key health benefits I could recall from the session:
- Increased happiness and positive mood
- More satisfaction with life
- Less materialistic
- Less likely to experience burnout
- Better physical health
- Better sleep
- Less fatigue
Some Gratitude Statements You Can Relate To:
- If you are reading this blog, congratulations, you are amongst 77% of literate Indians.
- Congratulations on the fact that you own a decent phone, laptop to reach this page.
- Only 40% of India can access internet currently, you are one of them.
- You have time, to read this.
- You have just learnt something new right now.
Conclusion:
A couple of days in practice, I feel I am a little less cranky when workload is at its peak. Although my spouse is yet to confirm this (I don’t think she ever will) but I feel more present at my work. I am not denying that it can be a placebo as well. But I am willing to explore more.
Until Next Time.. Thank You for your time! (Ah! Again!)
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