Happiness activity No. 1 | Workshop Life Energy

Happiness Activity No. 1: Expressing Gratitude

The expression of gratitude is a kind of metastrategy for achieving happiness. It involves a focus on the present moment, on appreciating your life as it is today and what has made it so. It is a lot more than saying thank you. It’s looking at the bright side of a setback; thanking someone in your life; “counting blessings”; not taking things for granted; coping; it is present-oriented. Gratitude is an antidote to negative emotions. You can practice gratitude in multiple ways: write a gratitude journal, find you paths to do it – once per week or find one thing per day to be grateful for, keep the strategy fresh by varying it and not overpracticing it, express gratitude directly to another person. Choose what works best for you.

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Exercise:

Think back over the events of the past week and write down on the lines below up to five things that happened for which you are grateful or thankful. They can vary from the ordinary (your dryer is fixed, your flowers are finally in bloom, your husband remembered to stop by the store) to the magnificent (your child’s first steps, the beauty of the sky at night).

This week I am grateful for:….

Exercise

Write a gratitude letter. Describe in detail what he or she did for you and exactly how it affected your life; mention how you often remember his or her efforts. Be as specific as possible. You can send or not your gratitude letter.