l| a time to be silent and a time to speak |l

Boosting Happiness Level: Gratitude Exercise

At the University of California at Riverside, psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky is using grant money from the National Institutes of Health to study different kinds of happiness boosters. One is the gratitude journal—a diary in which subjects write down things for which they are thankful. She has found that taking the time to conscientiously count their blessings once a week significantly increased subjects’ overall satisfaction with life over a period of six weeks, whereas a control group that did not keep journals had no such gain. Gratitude exercises can do more than lift one’s mood. At the University of California at Davis, psychologist Robert Emmons found they improve physical health, raise energy levels and, for patients with neuromuscular disease, relieve pain and fatigue. “The ones who benefited most tended to elaborate more and have a wider span of things they’re grateful for,” he notes.

... The single most effective way to turbocharge your joy, he says, is to make a “gratitude visit.” That means writing a testimonial thanking a teacher, pastor or grandparent—anyone to whom you owe a debt of gratitude—and then visiting that person to read him or her the letter of appreciation. “The remarkable thing,” says Seligman, “is that people who do this just once are measurably happier and less depressed a month later. But it’s gone by three months.” Less powerful but more lasting, he says, is an exercise he calls three blessings—taking time each day to write down a trio of things that went well and why. “People are less depressed and happier three months later and six months later.”

- 'The New Science of Happiness', an article from Time magazine, 17 Jan 2005

Now, let me try this experiment for a week.

1. I have money to get myself a cup of latte that's worth someone's hourly salary.
2. I'm literate and able to read, including the Bible that I'll be reading in a class later on.
3. My sensory faculties are generally functioning normally - listening to music, seeing things, moving my limbs, tasting good food (and coffee), breathing - air and fragrance.

Hehe, now the challenge is to jot down new stuff for the next week...