Gratitude is Hard

We all know we should try to be more grateful. We have seen the Ted talks and bought the journals.

Yet, sometimes we just don't feel grateful. Sometimes life just moves so fast the gratitude journal seems like wishful thinking.

This past week you may have asked yourself, what am I grateful for?

This can be a difficult question sometimes because it makes you feel that you should be grateful and if you are not feeling grateful then you are somehow failing.

But what if this is just the wrong question?

Remember Ask Jeeves? The search engine we used before Google? I'm aging myself here but it was a question-based search. So you had to enter a question into the search box not just a series of keywords.

In order to get a decent result, you had to enter in your specific question. Specific is key here, internet search was not as advanced as it is now.

So what if gratitude is hard because our questions are bad?

Our brains are a little like Ask Jeeves, we prefer specific questions. Overly abstract questions can sometimes feel overwhelming or result in the opposite impact that was intended.

So instead of asking what are you grateful for, I encourage you to ask:

What do I have right now that I used to wish for?

This more specific question is easier to answer and doesn't come with the pressure of feeling gratitude. Because gratitude practices should not make you feel guilt.

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