The Gratitude Attitude

Since the turn of the month, as swiftly as the weather has changed, I've sensed a nationwide shift in mood, and especially in myself with university routine looming near, I find that there's a strong feeling of lethargy in the air. As if I've been overwhelmed by the amount of 'free time' I've had, I feel I need a structured timetable back to take control of my life.

Coincidentally (or not), there's this book I'm reading called '59 seconds', a sort of self-help book, written by a professor and containing some interesting psychology-related stuff, and it's one I'd recommend reading. It's not that I've particularly reached a phase in my life where I've turned to such books, but the front cover was catchy (it's how I judge books; and yes, I know the proverb warning me precisely against doing such a thing), and I had vouchers to spend. It's actually a very interesting book, and you may see further blog-posts based on its content. The first chapter is on happiness, and contains studies on how happy people can become by doing certain simple things.

Part of this chapter talks about the 'gratitude attitude', something you experience especially when you've lost something, adding credence to the saying, 'you don't appreciate something until it's gone'. The comparison they give in the book is when you walk into a room that smells of freshly-baked bread; you notice the smell. But when you stay in the room you notice the smell less and less, until it's part of the 'background'. But when you leave and re-enter the room, you notice it again.

Some researchers asked two groups of people to write lists; one group had to list things they appreciated, and the other group things that annoyed them. After following both groups up, they found that the 'grateful' group were significantly more happy, living healthier lives and were more optimistic about the future. So actually just taking a step back and thinking of all the wonderful friends and assets we have at our disposal will ultimately make us 'happier' people. (I'm sure there's a debate as to what being happy is, as is discussed in the book, but you get the idea).

I know it's easy saying this sitting on my perch, relatively unscathed from what life has thrown at me, but really when we do reach that stage where we feel that nothing could get worse, as if everything in life that could go wrong is going wrong, think of people whose situations are worse. You haven't got a penny to your name? Well, there's someone somewhere in exactly the same situation as yourself but without any legs, or in the middle of a war zone or famine. We don't really have to be doing much to be taking advantage of how lucky we actually are; for example the gift of our lungs, organs built specifically to take air in and provide as much surface area for blood to carry oxygen and release carbon dioxide with. In the time you've read this blog-post so far, you've breathed at least twenty times, and probably without noticing much. There are people out there who can't breathe by themselves anymore, and have to depend on machines to stay alive; just to put things into perspective.

Having the 'gratitude attitude' not only would make us happier people, but it would be a step towards us using our physical and mental faculties for doing good. Charity is one of those things, and as it happens is also on the list of what can bring you genuine 'long-term' happiness. With Ramadan around the corner, now would be a better time than ever to list down all of the little things, the people, the opportunities that we take for granted and should be appreciating more.

You can stop focusing so much on your breathing now, unless you want to carry on...