How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier
By Robert A. Emmons, PhD (Houghton Mifflin, $25)
Psychologist/author Robert A. Emmons says that practicing grateful thinking, when you acknowledge that someone has given you a gift (material or non-material) and you appreciate that person's kindness, can increase your happiness by more than 25 percent.
1. When you're grateful, you recognize that a gift or benefit was "freely bestowed out of compassion, generosity or love." You've received something you didn't expect or earn, or something more than you deserved or earned.
2. It's hard to feel grateful when we take the good things in life for granted, have high expectations or figure that we're responsible for every good thing that comes our way.
3. Gratitude helps bind people together and is "one of the building blocks of a civil and humane society."
4. Keep a gratitude journal. Although the list of things/people you're grateful for may start out short, it'll grow longer as you learn to document the good things around you.
5. Forgetfulness and lack of awareness are the major obstacles to being grateful. Remember and acknowledge the ways your life has been made better because of others' efforts.