A practice in deliberately noticing what is good, against a brain that is built to notice what is wrong.
Listen to the Meditation
About This Practice
Walk into a room and your brain scans it for problems before you have consciously looked at anything. That habit kept our ancestors alive. In an environment where a missed threat meant death, a brain tuned to notice danger was worth having.
Most of us no longer live in that environment, but the scanning did not switch off. So we go through our days registering what is wrong and letting what is right pass without comment.
There is always something in your surroundings you are unhappy with. There is always something you would miss if it were gone. Both are there. Which one you attend to is not fixed.
This practice is deliberate attention to the second category. Not pretending the first does not exist, which would be a different and less useful exercise, but giving the good its fair share of your notice.
It works because attention shapes the brain. What we repeatedly focus on strengthens the pathways that make that focus easier next time, so gratitude gets less effortful the more you practise it. That is also why one grateful thought does very little and a regular practice does a great deal.
Micro Practice: Three Breaths
Whenever you enter a new space, a room, a building, anywhere, take three breaths.
- Breathe and settle on the breath itself.
- Breathe and find one thing here you are grateful for.
- Breathe and stay present in your body.