Our theme this month is Gratitude.
You can think about this topic in a variety of ways — as a noun or a verb, a feeling or a character trait, as thankfulness, indebtedness, appreciation, mindfulness, wonder, awe. You can look at it as other-directed — being grateful to someone for a gift they have given you — or as focused on and celebrating the gifts themselves.
My favorite definition comes from Sonja Lyubomirsky, who says that gratitude is “appreciating your life as it is today and what has made it so.”
I like that she emphasizes the mindful, in-the-present-moment quality of the experience. I also like how broad and inclusive this definition is. For instance, unlike some definitions, It doesn’t seem to rule out feeling grateful to ourselves.
However you like to define it, though, this is probably not new territory for you.
Gratitude has been a hot topic since the late 1990’s when Oprah Winfrey began sharing about her gratitude practice, followed by an explosion of positive psychology research on gratitude beginning in the early 2000’s.
We’ve learned so much in the last couple of decades, that it seemed worth giving gratitude some focused attention together.
This month we’ll look at how cultivating gratitude can enhance our well-being — mentally, emotionally, physically, and socially — and help each of us live more fully into our Beautiful Life.
We’ll look at why gratitude impacts us in such powerful ways, including how it affects our brains.
We’ll learn specific techniques for cultivating and enhancing gratitude and the other positive emotions that come along with it.
And together we’ll explore simple ways we can invite more gratitude into our daily lives.
I look forward to digging into this meaningful topic together!