Saturday, July 2, 2016

Gratitude Journal

After many hours of talk with Pastor Bill, I suddenly realized that the bast part of Christian is not the biblical teaching, but the grateful prayer that they keep practicing all the time.  In the past several months,  I have been indulging in a defensive mode or "victim mentalness"

Surprisingly, there's a professor in UC Davis, named Robert Emmons, doing many years of research on this particular subject.

Other approach: Gratitude visit.

Tips:

  1. First make the conscious decision to become more happier and more grateful. Don't go through motions.
  2. Elaborate in details about a particular person/thing instead of listing many superficial things.
  3. reflect on what your life would be like without certain blessing, rather than just tallying up all those good things. No hurry, go deeper.
  4. Try to record events unexpected or surprising, which provokes stronger level of gratitude
  5. Weekly journaling is better than daily journaling.Gratitude journal forces us to pay attention to the good things in life we'd otherwise take for grated.  Over doing it will make the brain adapt to positive events quickly. 
  6. Make the conscious effort to associate it with the word gift.
  7. Translating thoughts into concrete language,whether oral or written, has advantages over just thinking the thoughts: It makes us more aware of them, deepening their emotional impact.
  8. Writing help to organize thoughts, accept your own experience and put them in context. In essence, It allows you see the meaning of events around you and create meaning in your own life.

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