New Practice: Gratitude

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I was reading a recent issue of Psychotherapy Networker and found an article on Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman's reaction against traditional talk therapies. While I would reclassify Positive Psychology as "the psychology of sanctioned repression," a couple of the exercises he uses seemed to be possibly interesting additions to my practice.

The best part is that the exercise I'm starting with isn't time consuming and doesn't involve giving up anything--except possibly my cynicism.

The practice is a daily acknowledgement of gratitude. The idea behind the practice is to redirect consciousness toward those things that make our lives meaningful rather than getting stuck in the hard stuff. Seligman tends to favor methods that reject the hard stuff as opposed to processing and releasing difficult emotions, but that is his karma, not mine.

So, for 30 days, as an experiment, I will try to post one thing each day for which I am grateful.

Today I am grateful for a good friend who called me to arrange a lunch date.