Being really grateful…

Looking at my Facebook page over recent weeks, we can see a sea of “grateful people”.  They’re grateful for their kids, their jobs, their handbags, their moments, their holidays, and they’re grateful for each other.

According to the New York Times, research shows that embracing gratitude “has been linked to better health, sounder sleep, less anxiety and depression, higher long-term satisfaction with life and kinder behavior toward others, including romantic partners … and feeling grateful makes people less likely to turn aggressive when provoked”

Many of my friends have been lauding their graciousness in lists and lists on Facebook.  And whilst I haven’t done it myself, it has inspired me to feel a little more positive about life every time I read someone I know list a few things that are important to them.  That is, I enjoy reading the real things they are grateful for, then, after a few days, I find it looks a little more manufactured and often, by day five it is just done to impress others (or that’s what it looks like anyway).  But I love it nonetheess.  And it has me asking… maybe we should all be grateful, every day….

The grateful movement has taken on a life of its own, with people using it rather like a chain letter to inspire each other with positivity.  And I love it… as long as it is authentic and real. The most common one I have seen is the one where someone writes three things they are grateful for every day for five or seven days, and on each day they nominate someone else to start the movement alongside them by tagging them on Facebook.

From the ones I have seen, and that’s quite a few, people usually start out with gusto, praising the most important things, the most emotive things and the most beautiful things and then by day three or four have started running lower on items to be grateful for or just go through the motions.

And so today I ask you… how does it make you feel reading all that positivity on your wall?  Does it make you feel happier to read other people’s posts?  Or do you find yourself reading it and looking for the authenticity? 

Do we need to manufacture “grateful moments” it so we remember good times better, or even notice them in every day?  Or do we need to get a little more real about it?

Share with us what you are grateful for today and how you feel about the grateful movement online?