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Moving from Rational Gratitude to Experiential Gratitude Meditation

Practicing gratitude has become a widely used intervention within positive psychology, and for a good reason. Research has consistently shown that practicing gratitude brings you more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005), better health, stronger relationships (Algoe, 2012), and greater life satisfaction (Emmons & Stern, 2013).

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Gratitude is commonly practiced by establishing a habit of listing three or so things that one is grateful for in their life at any point in time. For instance, individuals might mention their health, where they are at in their careers, and the people they love. This type of gratitude practice helps rationally remind the individual of key things in his or her life that are good and valuable, in line with the first part of Emmons’ definition of gratitude. However, one way to enhance our gratitude practice to become more experiential is to incorporate Emmons’ second aspect of gratitude, acknowledging that the source of goodness is outside of ourselves. Simply listing three good things without considering where these things came from and who or what was responsible or necessary for their occurrence may yield only some of the potential gratefulness that we might be feeling. Furthermore, if our lists of “three good things” are relatively general or similar over time, we may lose some of our sense of gratitude for those good things, for it may be somewhat difficult to truly connect with feeling grateful in that moment.

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This meditation is designed to help people move from the rational sense of gratitude to the full essence of gratitude by connecting to a tangible and recent (within the last 24 hours) moment of goodness that includes recognizing the source of that goodness.

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Goal:

This tool aims to help you cultivate the full essence of gratitude by connecting to a tangible and recent (within the last 24 hours) moment of goodness that includes recognizing the source of that goodness.

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Advice:

  • You may want to make a list of good things in their lives to compare your feelings during and following the more “rational” gratitude approach versus the more “experiential” approach. It could be interesting to think about the differences in the intensity of gratefulness between something broad and large-scale, like “being in good health” (rational gratitude), and something tangible and recent from the day, such as the sight of a rainbow (experiential gratitude).

  • When you complete this exercise with someone particular in mind, you may want to write and then deliver a gratitude letter, which is a heartfelt letter of thanks to a person towards whom you feel grateful. A gratitude letter will not only boost your sense of gratefulness but may also strengthen your relationship with the other person.

  • This meditation can be used as a daily practice. You may re-live a few positive events that happened during that day and acknowledge the preciousness of those events.

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  • Algoe, S. B. (2012). Find, remind, and bind: The functions of gratitude in everyday relationships. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6(6), 455-469.

  • Emmons, R. A., & Stern, R. (2013). Gratitude as a psychotherapeutic intervention. Journal of clinical psychology, 69(8), 846-855.

  • Emmons, R. (2010, Nov 16). Why Gratitude Is Good [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_gratitude_is_good/

  • Seligman, M. E., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. American psychologist, 60(5), 410.

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