I Lost My Gratitude, Here’s What It Cost Me
How failing to practice gratitude disrupted my career, relationships and self-esteem.
The benefits of gratitude have been well documented, especially in recent years. Joel Wong and Joshua Brown wrote about the results of a gratitude study they conducted at the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, a primary finding of theirs being that gratitude, “unshackles us from toxic emotions.” Robert Emmons documented a number of physical, psychological and social benefits he observed over more than a decade of research on gratitude, benefits like stronger immune systems, better sleep, more joy and pleasure, more forgiveness, more generosity, more extroversion, less loneliness and isolation.
Gratitude became a big part of my therapeutic recovery when I entered treatment because I hated myself, everything around me and was clinging to a dwindling list of reasons to stay alive. Alongside talk therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy I practiced mindfulness and wrote in a daily gratitude journal that my therapist reviewed for more than a year.
I was tasked with finding three things, big or small, to write about each day. Some days it was as simple as seeing a bunny or a butterfly on the walk to work. Others it was as big as not being self-conscious when I went swimming…
