Daily Gratitude Habit Is Easier Than You Think

I’m grateful for the amazing bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables this year!

A study by Dr. Michael McCollough, of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and Dr. Robert Emmons, of the University of California at Davis, in which several hundred people kept a daily log of things they were grateful for, concluded that “daily gratitude exercises resulted in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, optimism and energy.”

At first, listing what you’re grateful for daily could appear to be yet another task you won’t get to. Tim Ferriss points out that “gratitude training” is the way to go, to make counting your blessings as routine as doing sit ups (or perhaps more routine for some!)

So here is a real-world example of how, if you break it down to the tiny things, you really can find things to be grateful for:

• I’m grateful for the nice evening light that caused me to open the curtains.
• I’m grateful my food is taking so long to cook, we settled on the couch to watch the DNC on tv.
• I’m grateful for my sense of humor that made me point out a man standing across the street, jokingly saying he was looking into the house.
• I’m grateful my friend had the presence of mind to shout out “I think he’s giving me a ticket!”
• I’m grateful that the parking person kindly let us off the hook. (It was a bizarre unobvious red zone in front of a stairway.)

In the September 2008 O Magazine, Oprah gives some good examples from her own gratitude journal:
“I am grateful for my breath and the recognition that I am here alive. Breathing. I am grateful for life. And for this time alone.”

OK a little deeper than my examples. But see how easy it is to find things to be grateful for?

Getting in the Gratitude Habit

What better use of Twitter, or status messages on your social networks, than to blast what you’re feeling grateful for? I know I know…there are better uses but it’s a good one!

A bunch of people have goals on SuperViva to feel more grateful or to start a gratitude journal.

The idea of seeing thousands of things I’m grateful for compiled does seem amazing. For now, I will at least continue counting my blessings to fall asleep. Sheep are so last millennium.

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Breakdown? Locked Out? Time to Zen Out

When plans change unexpectedly, leaving you with loads of time to brood or bemoan the situation, here are some ideas to embrace the “Power of Now” instead:

1. Think about the bright side. (Yes there always is one!)

2. Do something you’ve been needing quiet time to handle or think about.

3. Exercise, even if isometrically.

4. Meditate.

5. Think about changing the habit or action that got you into your pickle (if it was something in your control). Like, don’t lock your car or house door from the inside. Always use the key.

Yes, I’m writing a memo to self on that last one. Luckily I have my Blackberry on hand so I can blog-emote as I wait patiently.

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Worldwide 1 Hour Summer Ideas Brainstorm Experiment

You probably have ideas in mind of things to do in summer.

Well, through the magic of a service from Amazon.com that lets you hire workers by the task— incidentally a good source of spare change—I asked an anonymous group of people to come up with ideas of things to do for summer. They had 1 hour to do this and didn’t know I was from a life list website.

I thought it would be interesting to see the actions people want to take, in terms of verbs, and look at:
1) the commonalities
2) the verbs by themselves, not attached to goals or specific nouns.
Some ideas obviously were copied from websites. Some pie in the sky. Perhaps others from the people’s own life lists.

If you search by topic on SuperViva or look at the most popular ideas you will find lots of ideas using these verbs.

Here is the actual list of summer ideas, with more interesting results.

Bike build buy catch change clean climb cook coordinate create dance do drink eat experiment fight float fly get go grow have hike hiss hit host invite join jump learn lie lost make organize participate perform pick picnic plant play raise read rent review, ride roast sell send shop sing sleep spend start swim swing take teach throw travel try visit volunteer walk watch waterski write

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What to Do This Summer? Flow…

Positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi points out in his book of the same title that often when you vacation or watch TV, it feels like you’re relaxing. But in reality those activities might not be as fulfilling as engaging in things that immerse you into the flow state.

With that in mind, hide your cell phone and clock and…

Get into the flow…

1. Clean out your magazines and make a collage. Cut, paste, don’t think about it.
2. Play an all night card game or go out dancing till the wee hours. Or both!
3. Mow the lawn
4. Try an activity that uses your hands - like hand building ceramics, kneading bread or pizza dough.
5. Go on a long bike ride with a picnic at the end.
6. Get really into your favorite sport, game, art, or musical activity without tracking time.
7. Play with toys, building blocks, or some other thing that kids usually do.
8. Cook something that takes a lot of stirring or time.



9. Spend a day with friends in a garage sale, sitting around, having fun.
10. Get into Letterboxing, the great worldwide hunt for boxes containing a book, not treasure.
11. Do whatever makes you get into that happy state where time passes!

Find more ideas of things to do on SuperViva!

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