The Good Burden of Being Grateful
Let us be the ones who are grateful for what we have;
who waste no thought on what we don’t need.
A staggering number of moral philosophers have positioned gratitude as the foundation of goodness, placing it as a prerequisite to things like tolerance, love, forgiveness, generosity, and all the things we universally think of as “good.”
Social scientists are getting in on the act, too, as there’s a great awareness that this prerequisite nature of gratitude isn’t just a logical argument; people who cultivate and practice gratitude report an array of physical and emotional health benefits, as well as more and better “warm human relationships” of the sort I frequently reference as being central to joyful thriving.
If you want to get in on the act, the place most people need to start is in strengthening and exercising the muscles of observing what it is you have to be grateful FOR.
If you stop and take a moment to let them in, you’ll see that joys abound.
When you begin looking into, listing, and living your joys, listlessness and lethargy retreat. That’s because you beat scarcity — the feeling you never have enough — with gratitude.
