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Ken Parsell is the author of The Catalyst of Confidence and Discipline. He maintained this blog from 2011 to 2014. He is now working on other projects. Visit his website at www.kennethparsell.com.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Happiness and Gratitude

Bill Vallicella, who runs the blog Maverick Philosopher, recently posted the following on gratitude:

Every day find something to be grateful for.

It might be the regularity of nature. Without it, how would you make coffee? And then there is coffee itself and its wonderful taste. What a marvelous, yet harmless, drug! And then there are the thoughts that percolate up under its agency. There are so many of them swarming and demanding attention. Some are even worth writing down. Your notebooks lay ready: they weren't destroyed during the night. And the pens too. Your fingers are supple and free of arthritis. And there is your library of books, thousands of them, to supply you with thought- and blog-fodder . . . .

But if you want to be miserable you should be able to find something to kvetch about.

Now, I happen to relate a great deal to the fact that Bill is grateful for things like coffee and its effects, notebooks and pens, books and thoughts. (In fact I doubt I could have said it better myself.) You might not relate to such things at all. But finding something to be grateful for isn't too hard if you stop and think about it. It seems to me that the most grateful people (those who have developed the habit of regularly reflecting on the things they're thankful for) also tend to be the happiest, the most flexible, and the least likely to hazard an emotional "sawed-off-shotgun" in their social dealings. Don't wait for Thanksgiving to think about the things you're thankful for. Do so on a daily basis.

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