I already knew that genuinely feeling grateful does a lot for one's health and happiness. But as I thought about it, I realized how effective a focus on gratitude could be for making alliances, working with people, recognizing opportunities, and so on.
And it does feel better than griping about what's not right.
Probably it cuts down on self-consciousness, fear, and irritability as well. Anyone who is in the midst of reveling in the wonders of what she has been given probably isn't simultaneously in a swivet about the oppressive to-do list, money pressure, how the meeting this morning should have gone, and so forth. Anyone feeling that kind of ease is likely nice to be around.
Even my computer is more cooperative when I don't swear at it for taking 8 seconds to do something.
It's pretty easy to feel genuine gratitude (nothing's more annoying than the fake pious lying kind) Feeling grateful happens simply by remembering what's good: an 8-second delay in getting into a website is miraculously easy research compared to the old days of driving somewhere to pore over microfiche archives. And so forth.
