Making a Ritual

Gratitude is the Easiest

Feb 24, 2025

My last post talked about the difference between habits and rituals. If you’d like to read that first, click HERE.

In this article, I’m going to focus on what I think is the easiest way to start transforming habits into rituals, and that is the addition of gratitude. Adding more moments of gratitude to your day also is the simplest way to start feeling the benefits of personal rituals.

I wrote a shorter post on this back in November of 2023. To read it, click HERE, or check the archive sometime.

Adding Gratitude

The reason I think gratitude is easy to add to your life is that it usually doesn’t involve doing anything (except maybe slowing down). The change all takes place in your mind.

Let’s imagine a morning and see how thankfulness can enhance it.

Think about waking up. Many of us have the privilege of rising in the morning in a place of safety and shelter. What would it feel like to take a moment and be grateful for the bed in which we slept, the roof overhead, and the fearless way we can greet the day. Simultaneously, we can try to empathize with the huge numbers of people who don’t share that privilege.

Becoming aware of privilege can be a life-transforming thing just by itself. Our gratitude can naturally stem from that awareness. Also, I believe it can only be good to cultivate tenderheartedness toward those who live in daily fear and physical distress. It might even motivate us to take action to help people who are in need.

Every action can be done thankfully.

Let’s continue imagining our morning. If you’re like me and aren’t a morning person, you may blearily stagger to the bathroom to get ready. Wait a second: do you have an indoor bathroom? Wow, those of us who do rarely take the time to be grateful for that, right? If I am mindful, I can remember that’s a pretty great thing to have, isn’t it? Running water… that’s DRINKABLE? You can see how long the gratitude list can be. We haven’t even gotten dressed yet!

The Science Connection

Let’s take a break from our “gratitude day” and look at some of the benefits of gratitude. Back in 2001, the University of California, Berkeley began what would become the Greater Good Science Center. From their “Mission and Beliefs” page:

Based at the University of California, Berkeley, one of the world’s leading institutions of research and higher education, the GGSC is unique in its commitment to both science and practice: Not only do we sponsor groundbreaking scientific research into social and emotional well-being, we help people apply this research to their personal and professional lives.
Since 2001, we have been at the fore of a new scientific movement to explore the roots of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behavior—the science of a meaningful life. And we have been without peer in our efforts to translate and disseminate this science to the public, including through our award-winning online magazine, Greater Good.

In May of 2018, the Center published a white paper (authoritative report) titled The Science of Gratitude. After defining and looking at the origins of gratitude, the paper summarizes what various studies found to be the possible benefits of gratitude, both individually and socially.

From that paper:

Research suggests that gratitude may be associated with many benefits for individuals, including better physical and psychological health, increased happiness and life satisfaction, decreased materialism, and more.
A handful of studies suggest that more grateful people may be healthier, and others suggest that scientifically designed practices to increase gratitude can also improve people’s health and encourage them to adopt healthier habits.
In general, more grateful people are happier, more satisfied with their lives, less materialistic, and less likely to suffer from burnout. Additionally, some studies have found that gratitude practices, like keeping a “gratitude journal” or writing a letter of gratitude, can increase people’s happiness and overall positive mood.

One study of folks who had chest pain or a heart attack found that those who were more optimistic and thankful said that they felt their improvements in emotional well-being lasted even six months later. Report link: The Science of Gratitude

Ingratitude and Suffering

Here’s something I found in the recent podcast “The Philosophy of Gratitude” by J.W. Bertolotti: The list of things we take for granted is rather long. We typically “expect” to wake up in the morning and “expect” to be able to have our sight, and on and on. But these are not guarantees. We’re not entitled to be alive or see the world around us. We are fortunate to breathe deeply and see the vast sky overhead.

Meditating on life is a practice. Like many other ancient practices, it exists because it’s not our default setting. As the Buddha wisely pointed out, we tend to experience life as suffering due to “greed and desire,” or, you could say, ingratitude. (link to podcast)

(the Substack:

J.W. Bertolotti

)

The Day of Gratitude

I won’t imagine with you every detail of a day filled with gratitude, but here are some questions to prompt you. Have you considered being grateful for:

Your job? (even if it stinks)
The way you got to work today?
Your lunch? (including those who prepared it, the workers who picked the vegetables or butchered the animal, the animal itself [!], the people who made the table on which you ate, and on and on)
The beverages you drank during the day?
The residence you went back to at the end of the workday?
A safe place to sleep?

You can see how, once we become aware, we can be thankful for a myriad of details. That’s why a gratitude journal can be a worthwhile practice. Not only does that ritual help you be aware, but you can even return to past days and remember things you’ve forgotten.

Awareness

So many things come down to awareness, don’t they? The benefits of mindfulness are countless. I’m constantly reminding myself to be mindful in different situations. I believe this is an area of life in which we can experience never-ending improvement.

Did this article prompt you to be more aware of being thankful? Share your thoughts! Have you benefitted from cultivating a state of gratitude? Make a comment!