Today in class we had a great time talking about the role of gratitude in our lives. We took a brief test (I scored the lowest) to determine our level of gratitude. Then we talked about what we have been grateful for in the past, what we are grateful for now, and things we hope to be grateful for in the future. There was a whole lot of encouragement and laughter!
Activity:
List things you are grateful for. Research shows that just writing down a couple of things you are grateful for every day care increase your happiness significantly. We listed things from the past, present, and future but any kind of list will do. Some of the items on our lists were opportunities, family experiences, having to wait, supportive friends, health, weather, skills, closeness, service, creativity, bringing hope to others, and many more.
Take Home:
Write a letter expressing gratitude to someone who has had an impact on your life. Make an appointment to visit with that person. Bring a copy of your letter and read it out loud. Leave time to chat for a while after reading the letter and leave a copy.
* Some people find that reading the letter out loud, face-to-face is intimidating. The exercise has much more impact when done this way. If you need to bring someone to be supportive, or you need to practice reading the letter ahead of time, that’s OK.
Anne, I finally did my gratitude assignment. I serve in a primary presidency and I wrote a gratitude note for each member and read it to them during our last presidency meeting. It was good.
ReplyDeleteI got choked up emotionally while I did it, but not because I was "touched" or "feeling the spirit." No, I got choked up because I was so blasted embarrassed and felt very vulnerable and etc. This is why I don't practice public displays of gratitude more often. Not because I don't feel gratitude or want to express it, but because I have a hard time dealing with the actual process of being open and vulnerable.
This is what I've learned about myself from doign this exercise:
Some things mean so much to me that I don't know if I can handle any sort of a thoughtless or casual reaction, and neither do I handle very well a teary response where I know I've touched them deeply. Connection or lack of connection can be scary because you have to be prepared to deal with the consequence either way; and am I ready, truly ready, to deal with that change? But when you haven't TRIED to connect, then you are "safe" because you and they are untested and you have no obligation of sincere feeling or the lack thereof to live up to.
This lack of trying, in the end, is the greater tragedy because it represents a failure to create something that potentially could be so beautiful (real friendship). It's only virtue is the potential for missing out on some pain if your overture of sincerity is rejected which sometimes happens.
Those are the breaks of life, people. Looking back, I am always grateful for the times I take the chancier roads towards new opportunities, but actually walking down those roads are some of the hardest things I've ever done.