A message from Sandy.  As we all know, there are many facets of work and life that we cannot control, but we can increase our control over our responses  to them. One way is to raise your overall level of well-being, even in the face of stress and difficulties–we do this by getting better at being grateful. It has been reported that people who practice gratitude are healthier and feel better about their lives, make more progress towards goals, are more optimistic, and more likely to help others.

So how do we increase our level of gratitude in our jobs and in our lives? Here’s a few suggestions:

1. Pay attention to good things, large and small. This requires intentional thought because bad things seem more prominent to us sometimes than the good things. Perhaps because we take so many of the good things for granted—-things that always are there–like our heath; or people who are always there–doing extraordinary things so often, we don’t recognize it anymore. We need to balance our thoughts–to give positive thoughts the most space in our brains.
2. Pay attention to bad things that are avoided. You may have slipped on the ice and just ended up with a big bruise–be grateful you had no broken bones. Don’t complain about the big bruise—it will go away. You can still walk and you avoided a cast, maybe surgery, time off work, even rehabilitation. Be grateful!
3. Practice downward comparisons. That means remembering things can always be worse, or were worse, or are worse for someone else. The poet, Robert Pollack said, “Sorrows remembered sweeten present joy.” Here is a work example. There are 2 people who are moved to the same department in the same company. One is relieved and happy to have this new position, the other is dissatisfied because the teamwork characterizing the old job is no longer there. The first person will have an easy time with downward contrast–the second person will have to work much harder to find reasons to be grateful.
4. Establish regular times to focus on being grateful. Gratitude is a character strength enhanced by practice.. So practice!
5. When facing a difficult task or situation–remind your self to be grateful–for what you haven’t lost and  for the strength and opportunities that will arise from that situation. Studies have found that benefit-seeking and benefit-remembering are linked to psychological and physical health. Benefit finding involves choosing to focus on the positive aspects of the situation and avoiding the feeling of being the victim.
6. Elicit and reinforce gratitude in the people around you. Negative moods are catching, which means positive moods can be catching too. Sometimes having someone else help you see what is good in your life will make it more visible to you.

Gratitude is a character strength admired around the world. To increase gratitude, a good first step is to notice the good things that happen to us–large and small. This will help us all take fewer of our blessings for granted.