How do you determine what it is that you are grateful for?
I’ve tried a few things like this before, but every time I find myself being held back by not having a good definition of “gratitude” that can appeal to both my logical half and my intuitive half.
If I got a pony, I’d get an emotional reaction in the moment, but at the end of the day when I go to write it down, my logical side wouldn’t think “hey, ponies are great”, I’d think, “If I got a unicorn, that would have been better, and if I got shot in the face, that would have been worse. There is nothing more to say here.” Any “zero goodness point” that I compare my life situation to is going to be arbitrary, so I don’t think it could be meaningful.
It all seems as silly to me as being told to eat my vegetables because someone somewhere else is starving to death. I would still like to get the benefits of a gratitude journal, I’m just not sure how to justify the idea to my inner Spock. What am I missing?
I think of the gratitude list as things that stood out as either among the best parts of the day or as unusually good (for you personally). And mistakes go the opposite way.
As someone who was in that position, I dealt with it by saying ‘doesn’t matter for now’; until you have the habit of noticing positive things in your life, whether they compare favorably to alternatives is besides the point, and by the time you are beginning to acquire the habit, you also begin to calibrate your values better so you know better what exactly you want to label as good.
In short, just aiming for volume of truthful positive statements is enough to start with.
How do you determine what it is that you are grateful for?
I’ve tried a few things like this before, but every time I find myself being held back by not having a good definition of “gratitude” that can appeal to both my logical half and my intuitive half.
If I got a pony, I’d get an emotional reaction in the moment, but at the end of the day when I go to write it down, my logical side wouldn’t think “hey, ponies are great”, I’d think, “If I got a unicorn, that would have been better, and if I got shot in the face, that would have been worse. There is nothing more to say here.” Any “zero goodness point” that I compare my life situation to is going to be arbitrary, so I don’t think it could be meaningful.
It all seems as silly to me as being told to eat my vegetables because someone somewhere else is starving to death. I would still like to get the benefits of a gratitude journal, I’m just not sure how to justify the idea to my inner Spock. What am I missing?
I think of the gratitude list as things that stood out as either among the best parts of the day or as unusually good (for you personally). And mistakes go the opposite way.
As someone who was in that position, I dealt with it by saying ‘doesn’t matter for now’; until you have the habit of noticing positive things in your life, whether they compare favorably to alternatives is besides the point, and by the time you are beginning to acquire the habit, you also begin to calibrate your values better so you know better what exactly you want to label as good.
In short, just aiming for volume of truthful positive statements is enough to start with.