How to Practice Gratitude: Exercise in Giving Thanks
What are you grateful for today?
It’s a question I throw at the end of coaching sessions with my clients. I stole the question from the Coursera version of Yale’s most popular class ever, “The Science of Well-Being,” led by Laurie Santos, Ph.D. In this course, you’re tasked with writing down the things for which you’re grateful every day for a week.
Why Is Gratitude Important
The idea is two-fold. One, it breaks you out of negativity traps by training you to focus on and acknowledge the real good in your life, which helps you develop a positive outlook. Two, if you recall the things you’re grateful for in detail, your brain thinks it’s experiencing them again — so you’ll have multitudes of goodness in you.
[Read: ADHD and the Power of Positive Thinking]
Gratitude is an essential practice for those of us with ADHD, as we often harbor a nagging assumption that we’re less than. The extended logic is that because we are less than, we must have crappy lives – a self-defeating cycle that doesn’t make our lives any easier.
But we’re not less than. Our lives are full of beauty that we often don’t acknowledge. Noting the good around us and within us is a type of reality check that sparks awareness, acceptance, balance, and happiness.
If you’re looking for ways to practice gratitude in your life, try this fun exercise with friends and family. Propose that everyone join in on this gratitude game at your next gathering.
How to Practice Gratitude: A Group Gratitude Exercise
1. Gather a group of people together — around the Thanksgiving table, in the living room, at the beach, in the car during a long drive. Whatever works.
[Read: For to Log Daily Victories for Your Family]
2. Take turns answering the following questions.
- What’s one thing you’re grateful for in your life? (This could be your whole life or just this past week.)
- What are you grateful for about each person in this group?
- What are you grateful for about yourself?
- What are you grateful for about the natural world?
- What was your favorite answer that each person gave?
Each person should take the time they need to formulate an answer and should wait for others to formulate theirs. Go where your heart leads and have fun with it. Be chill. (I view this exercise as a game, though this is very different from the cutthroat card tournaments I played with my extended family growing up, where being chill was never an asset.) Beyond this one-time activity, make gratitude a daily practice in your life. Challenge yourself, in particular, to reflect on the positive aspects of your neurodivergence.
How to Practice Gratitude: Next Steps
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