The benefits of gratitude aren’t exactly a secret, but many of us still think of it as some kind of fixed personality trait. Some people seem to be born grateful, while the rest of us feel like we’re the ones who automatically notice what’s wrong. It’s true that we all have different affect profiles, but gratitude works the same way happiness does. It’s a skill you can train, and it becomes more powerful the more you practice it.
In today’s episode, I’m going to walk you through my 5-step gratitude protocol. These simple practices fit naturally into my morning routine and evening protocol. As always, I share with you the research that supports each action I recommend.
I hope that you’ll start practicing gratitude and share it with the people around you. When you cultivate this habit, it strengthens your well-being and quietly lifts the happiness of everyone in your orbit.
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Referenced:
• The Happiness Files: Insights on Work and Life
• Negativity bias, negativity dominance, and contagion
• Burnout from emotion regulation at work: The moderating role of gratitude
• Four Ways to Be Grateful—And Happier
• Gratitude and well-being: A review and theoretical integration
• How to Be Thankful When You Don’t Feel Thankful
• Humblebragging: A Distinct—and Ineffective—Self-Presentation Strategy
• Gratitude influences sleep through the mechanism of pre-sleep cognitions
• A dark side of gratitude? Distinguishing between beneficial gratitude and its harmful impostors
• Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Joyful Life
• The case for thankfulness over gratitude
• The impact of single-session gratitude interventions on stress and affect
• The beauty that moral courage creates


