Daily Gratitude Exercise

Let’s Take A Moment To Be Grateful Together

Part 1

Picture this: you are walking through a field. You are alone and helpless; no technology, no tools, no shelter. Suddenly you hear a rustle in the tall grass. You look over and catch the glint of amber eyes watching you intently. You feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up. It’s a lion. You stand stock still knowing there is nothing you can do. He is a predator, and you are his prey.

Now return to your cozy bed or comfortable office where your computer or iPhone awaits. You are safe. There is no sign of the danger our ancestors experienced on a regular basis.

When I run through this stage of my gratitude exercise I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for basic safety. It doesn’t matter if someone cut me off driving the other day, if the coffee shop messed up my drink order, or I’m unhappy with my last haircut. All these problems seem trivial when I contrast them with the constant and unending concern for survival that 99% of life is consumed with every day. We have somehow removed ourselves from the food chain. The large majority of us will not have to worry about being eaten today. I thank my ancestors for giving us the tools to protect ourselves from saber tooth tigers, hyenas, bears, wolves, and even giant, predatory, kangaroos.

Part 2

Next, take a moment to focus on your eyes and imagine for a moment, that you lost your eyesight. You are left to navigate the world without vision and can no longer see the sunrise, a new city, your mom’s face when it lights up with laughter, your kids growing and changing over the years. What would we give to have our eyesight back?

I personally would pay every penny I owned. Yet I rarely take a moment to appreciate my eyes. I cross the street and run up stairs without a thought, taking the ease with which I navigate this world for granted.

Take a moment to run through each of your senses. Your ears that can hear your favorite song and your loved one’s voices. Your tongue that can taste your favorite foods and drinks. Your nose that can smell fresh popped popcorn, summer BBQs, your loved ones’ perfume or cologne, fresh cut grass, and a morning road after a night of rain.

How would we feel if we lost any of these? Let’s take a moment to consciously appreciate them today.

Part 3

Similar to our senses, let’s take a moment to become aware of our hands. Look at each finger and flex them. Curl them into a fist. Think about how much we use them every day. Typing on the keyboard or scrolling on the phone, opening doors, jotting something down with pen and paper, driving, scratching an itch, lifting a box.

How often do we focus on small annoyances, yet fail to appreciate the utility of our amazing bodies? Again, if I lost my hands I would give everything to have them back. Yet I don’t even notice them or appreciate them most days.

Repeat this exercise moving through your body. Your legs, your arms, your heart, your lungs. Take a moment to focus in on each specific area and give thanks for it.

Have you ever been sick and said to yourself, “What I wouldn’t give to be healthy again! I won’t take my health for granted anymore.” Yet the day after your fever, or stomach flu, or cold... it’s like it never happened. Within hours we are back to taking our health for granted. When we don’t have our health it consumes us. Yet when we are healthy we quickly move on to feeling outraged at the neighbor not picking up after their dog, the telemarketer calling during dinner, and the ding in our car door. Let us take a moment to feel gratitude for our health, even when we are feeling healthy.

Part 4

The last time I traveled I felt annoyed. The seat was uncomfortable, the lines slow-moving, and the flight long. Then I zoomed out and thought about it a bit more. Sure my flight had taken a few hours, but even a little over a hundred years ago that same trip would have taken people 6 months! We would have had people die of diseases and accidents along the way, many not even making it to our destination. Meanwhile, there I was annoyed that my Cinnabon was more expensive than I remembered it being.

Let’s take a moment to think of all the luxuries we take for granted. Beds and Pillows better than the king of England ever experienced, hot water, comfortable clothes, cars, and air conditioning.

Back in the day we would have spent so much of our time hunting and growing our own food and crops. If I wanted sushi I would have had to jump on a ship and hope the sails would experience favorable winds to bring me across the sea. Now I can just drive 10 minutes and get all I can eat sushi whenever I want.

We have so much to be grateful for. Yet, it's not uncommon for us to focus on the one or two things that are bothering us. Let us take a moment to think of the small pleasures in our life. We are some of the luckiest people in history to be born in such a time.

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