The last time I felt real gratitude

I heard, read, and watched a lot of resources online that praise gratitude. It seems like the long-lost ingredient to the happiness recipe.

I even tried like gratitude journal for a while, but it was an intellectual exercise; I had to find something to be grateful for because I set myself the goal to find every day three things, or at least one.
I was a futile experiment, but the thinking process, the psychological discoveries around this topic, had convinced me, despite my experiences.

About a week ago, I changed jobs. Now I work for a big company that has one of its buildings near my home (for the first time in my life), and I can even go to work on foot. And to come and go to my new office, I could cut, and usually do, through a small park. Two days ago, I was coming home after work, and suddenly I felt that sense of gratitude. I was happy because I was able to spend some time, even if only for a short while, surrounded by nature. Plus, I know I could do it again in the future, and for that I felt so grateful.

So you might be wondering if this is just a public redo of the gratitude list exercise? Nope, well, not exactly. My hope is that if I praise that moment, if I can stress how important it was, maybe it might trigger something in me and make me start to be more alert to find new moments like these for the simple reason of experiencing that emotional peak again. Or it will just be another passing moment, like there will be many others in the future, and that's okay too.

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