We all know that gratitude is good for you, fortified with warm, sweet feelings that are sure to jumpstart your day like a bowl of sugary cereal. There’s all this neuroscience behind gratitude’s health benefits, which range from lifting depression to curing constipation. Okay, I made that last one up, but I’ve often wondered how much gratitude do we need to practice to reap the rewards? In a recent NY Time Article on the health benefits of gratitude, they claim that one moment a day is enough. Sounds easy, right? But which moment? Before you go to bed, when you wake up? It doesn’t matter.
This exercise is about imagining gratitude as a glimmer, something shiny like a glint of sunlight off the water, or the way the way the sun sets on the landscape. Adding gratitude to some small moment makes is brighter, opens your awareness, and empowers your sense of depth about the world and your relationships. All you have to do is choose to ‘shine something up’ with the gift of gratitude
