Smile

Currently, it is known that our generation is currently composed of the highest number of sad or emotional people in history. As one of those who have suffered sad, emotional times, I surfed around the internet to share with people to the answer to the following question : How does one become happy? This blog post that might just have the answer.

Robert Emmons, psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, demonstrated in his research that grateful people are happier. In his new book, Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, Emmons wrote, “Our groundbreaking research has shown that grateful people experience higher levels of positive emotions such as joy, enthusiasm, love, happiness, and optimism, and that the practice of gratitude as a discipline protects a person from the destructive impulses of envy, resentment, greed, and bitterness.”
The challenge then is for us to find ways of becoming more grateful. One powerful way to increase your gratitude is by increasing the number of what I call “Gratitude Chains” in your life. Gratitude Chains are made up of links of appreciation for what contributes to the people and things we care about. Here are the four keys to building Gratitude Chains.
Cultivate Awareness
Everyday look around you and take note of what you value. What and who do you appreciate in your life? Write down what you observe (i.e., your spouse, your children, your job, your daily meals, your friends, your country, your car, your home, the customer service you receive, the coffee you drink, etc.).
Cultivate Curiosity
Learn more about each person or item on your list. How do these people do what they do each day? What contributes to these important things in your life? Ask questions, study, and research. Do whatever you have to do in order to better understand what and whom you treasure.

Cultivate Memory
You feel grateful only for what you remember. Practice recalling the most important people and things you care about in your life. Recite them in the morning. Add them to your prayers. Reflect on them each day. Thank them.
Link Your Gratitude Chains Together
There is power in the Gratitude Chain. The more we know about the people and things that matter to us in our lives, the more likely we will feel grateful. View your life as Gratitude Chains linked together. The gratitude you feel in one part of your life will connect to and energize the other areas. And remember all it takes is a can of beans and your Gratitude Chain to brighten your day.

To be truly happy, one has to be thankful of everything. A person normally takes gratitude when he/she sees one. However, as time goes by, the person forgets that sense of gratitude, which is probably why, according to the post, he/she loses the sense of happiness. Thankfully, I am not that person because recently I have received an “enlightenment” of happiness, a happiness which I gratify always and hope to last forever.

Photocredit : Shokora on Flickr

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