Emotions and thoughts come and go like the weather. In the midst of life, we experience feelings on the spectrum from desirable to undesirable, and from easy to challenging, most every day. Abundant research has shown that mental health is every bit as vital to well-being as physical health, and yet our emotional struggles can make us feel isolated and/or ashamed. These “secondary” feelings only compound our challenges. Our longings for contentment and happiness can feel overwhelming, especially if we have no road-map. Yet, in so many ways, we have far more agency than we know or use.

Grateful Living can help us reorient to our mind – to become more accepting, compassionate and curious about our thoughts and feelings. And we can work with habits of the mind, as opposed to against them; learning with awareness from all of our moment-to-moment thoughts and feelings. Cultivating gratitude can bring about this sort of shift in perspective. As Br David says, “It is not happiness that makes us grateful; it is gratefulness that makes us happy.”