Gratitude Day 17

Welcome To Day #17 of 21 Days of Gratitude

A Life-Changing Gratitude Assignment.

Martin Seligman, PhD (author of “Authentic Happiness“) is credited as being the founder of the Positive Psychology movement.

Prior to his tenure as President of the American Psychological Association (in 1998), psychology, as a discipline, limited its focus to the disease model of studying dysfunctional behavior.

The message of “Authentic Happiness” is that by identifying the very best in ourselves, we can improve the world around us and achieve new and sustainable levels of authentic contentment, gratification and meaning.

This is how Martin Seligman describes teaching his classes at the University of Pennsylvania:

“I have been teaching psychology courses at the University of Pennsylvania for more than thirty years: introductory psychology, learning, motivation, clinical and abnormal psychology. I love teaching, but I have never experienced more joy than in teaching Positive Psychology for the last four years. One of the reasons is that, unlike the other courses I teach, there are real world assignments that are meaningful and even life-changing.”

Today we invite you to experience the most profound of all the exercises that Dr. Seligman assigns his students.

Today’s action steps:

1) Gratitude Notes

This is how Martin Seligman explains the process:

“Select one important person from your past who made a major positive difference in your life and to whom you have never fully expressed your thanks. (Do not confound this selection with newfound romantic love, or with the possibility of future gain.) Write a testimonial just long enough to cover one laminated page. Take your time composing this; my students and I found ourselves taking several weeks, composing on buses and as we fell asleep at night. Invite that person to your home, or travel to that person’s home. It is important you do this face to face, not just in writing or on the phone. Do not tell the person the purpose of the visit in advance; a simple “I just want to see you” will suffice. Wine and cheese do not matter, but bring a laminated version of your testimonial with you as a gift. When all settles down, read your testimonial aloud slowly, with expression, and with eye contact. Then let the other person react unhurriedly. Reminisce together about the concrete events that make this person so important to
you. (If you are so moved, please do send me a copy at seligman@psych.upenn.edu.)”

2) Dr. Seligman would also encourage you to continue your daily list of 5 things that you are grateful for in your Gratitude Journal 

Elyse Hope Killoran
President,  Prosperity from the Inside-Out

Gratitude Day 11

Welcome to Day #11 of 21 Days of Gratitude   

(Today's post is a compilation from the original 21 Days of Gratitude Project and other additional websites.)

Today we invite you to focus on a wonderful way that you can use “gratitude” to activate your body’s natural relaxation response.

Savor: To appreciate fully; enjoy or relish.

Or, another way of stating it, Mindfulness + Gratitude = Savoring

The choice to slow down, to “savor” something, must be made consciously.  But–once you do–the benefits become very apparent.

You see - stress and happiness cannot co-exist.

Savoring (from http://psychcentral.com/lib/2011/five-pathways-to-happiness/)
"This is “being in the moment, smelling the roses and tasting your coffee,” Siegel said. It’s savoring everyday moments. Mindfulness helps us learn how to savor situations.
Mindfulness involves “training the mind to be more in the present moment,” and to “be open to whatever is happening each moment,” according to Siegel, who’s also a mindfulness expert and author of The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems.

savoringpresent participle of sa·vor (Verb)

Verb:

Taste (good food or drink) and enjoy it completely. Enjoy or appreciate (something pleasant) completely, esp. by dwelling on it.

More info »Merriam-Webster - The Free Dictionary

In fact, mindfulness supports each pathway to happiness. Many people have a narrow definition of mindfulness, such as you must banish all thoughts from your mind and become a blank slate. But being mindful is as simple as bringing your attention to walking, instead of continuing to get lost in thoughts about your to-list and what happened yesterday, Siegel said.

This is a skill that you can practice with various exercises. “The same way you can develop physical fitness, you can develop psychological fitness,” Siegel said. Mindfulness exercises help people step out of your thoughts and be fully engaged in the here and now. You can download or play many meditations that can help you to develop mindfulness on Siegel’s website.



According to recent research, we spend almost 47 percent of our time “mind-wandering,” or having thoughts about something other than what we’re currently doing. And this makes us unhappy.
“In fact, how often our minds leave the present and where they tend to go is a better predictor of our happiness than the activities in which we are engaged,” said Matthew A. Killingsworth, one of the study’s researchers, in a statement.

Even something as tedious as shoveling snow can make us feel happy, if we’re fully engaged in it, (savoring) Siegel said. In the same way, something as pleasant as talking to a friend, if your mind is wandering, won’t make you happy."

So, as soon as you find yourself “savoring” something (anything), you have shifted your energy in a powerfully positive way.

Action Steps for this week:

1) We’d invite you to make a commitment to yourself that, a half-dozen times over this coming weekend, you will bring yourself into present moment awareness while you look for opportunities to “savor.”

~ Savor the beauty in the sights aroung you.
~ Really pay attention to the sounds in your environment.
~ Be mindful regarding the family rituals that are most meaningful to you and/or create new ways for your family to relax and savor time together.

As Bonnie Snyder of http://www.serenitypathways.com explains, “Happiness comes from focusing in the moment. That is the magic of savoring.”


2) Mindfulness + Gratitude = Savoring

3) Continue your daily list of 5 things that you are grateful for in your Gratitude Journal.

Elyse