A Gratitude Revolution

Eight ways to make gratefulness permanent.

BY: Anne A. Simpkinson

For the first few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, most Americans felt a heightened sense of gratitude. As a New Yorker, I found myself suddenly grateful for things ordinary -- water, a roof over my head, and electricity -- and extraordinary, such as the flood of calls and e-mails from friends and family making sure I was okay.

But, I keep wondering, can I possibly make this feeling last? Can the country as a whole? To do so will require us to think radically anew about gratitude, making it a notion far more central to our lives. We'll need a "gratitude revolution."

As a nation, we've designated one day each year to give thanks for our blessings. But the world's faiths and spiritual traditions have long emphasized the value of creating small, regular, frequent rituals to make us continually conscious of what we have. Here are eight ways -- some plucked from the world's religions, others from spiritually-creative people of today -- to help keep us on a heightened state of gratefulness alert.

		Eight Ways to Stay Grateful Always Click on any of the suggestions below: One: Start Your Day Gratefully Two: End Your Day Gratefully -- No Matter How Rotten the Day Was Three: Say Grace Before Meals Four: Keep a Gratitude Journal Five: Go Crazy With Post-It Notes Six: Set a Daily Compliment Quota Seven: Resurrect the Thank-You Note Eight: Give Something Away Bonus: Bless Everything Always

One: Start Your Day Gratefully
"When we first wake up, our minds are very subtle and delicate," says Tibetan Buddhist teacher Thubten Chodron. "If we set a strong positive motivation at this time, there is a greater chance of it staying with us and influencing us throughout the day."

There's a Jewish prayer, the shechechiyanu, whose exuberant spirit of praise and gratitude makes it a beautiful way of beginning the day:

Blessed art Thou, Lord our God,
Ruler of the Universe,
For keeping us alive and preserving us and
Permitting us to behold this day.

A Shinto morning prayer states:

"I pray that this day, the whole day, as a child of God, I may not be taken hold of by my own desire, but show forth the divine glory by living a life of creativeness, which shows forth the true individual."

Here are Christian, Ethiopian, Suffi and other morning prayers. Or, if you don't like formal prayers, just keep it simple: "Thank you for the day about to unfold."

Two: End Your Day Gratefully -- No Matter How Rotten the Day Was
Force yourself to mentally sift through your day -- putting aside the worries about things you should or shouldn't have said or done -- and find the blessings. Sometimes this can be a real challenge but this discipline helps clear the mind, flush away the painful parts of the day, and above all, it helps us keep things in perspective.

One Christian prayer includes the sentiment:

Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives rest in you.
The night is quiet.
Let the quietness of your peace enfold us,
all dear to us, and all who have no peace.

A Sufi mystic writes:

O my Lord, the stars are shining and the eyes of men are closed, and kings have shut their doors and every lover is alone with his beloved, and here am I alone with Thee.

More bedtime prayers

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