I'd like to talk for a few minutes about gratitude there's now a lot of research that suggests that gratitude is good for us no surprise there and as an emotion it is very easy to invoke unless you are living the worst possible life it should be easy to find something for which you're grateful and I can be very skillful and wise to do this now one reflection I find myself doing when I'm in some ordinary contracted state of mind let's say I'm stressed out by something not going well I'm reacting to some hassle I could
be caught in traffic and laid for an appointment I sometimes think of bad things that haven't happened to me I might think that I haven't been diagnosed with a fatal illness I'm not caught in a war zone and I think of all the people on Earth in that moment who are suffering those sorts of dislocations in their lives and then I reflect that if I were in their shoes I would be desperate to get back to precisely the situation I'm now in just stuck in traffic and laid for an appointment but without any real care
in the world I noticed this at dinner the other night with my family everyone seemed to be in a fairly mediocre frame of mind we were all in some way disgruntled or stressed out I had a million things I was thinking about and I suddenly noticed how little joy we were all taken in one another's company and then I thought if I had died yesterday and could have the opportunity to be back with my family I thought of how much I would Savor this moment right now and it totally transformed my mood it gave me
instantaneous access to my best self and to a feeling of pure attitude for the people in my life just think of what it would be like to lose everything and then be restored to the moment you're now in however ordinary you can reboot your mind in this way and it need not take any time the truth is you know exactly what it's like to feel overwhelming gratitude for your life you are in an unusual situation there are at least a billion people people on Earth at this moment who would consider their prayers answered if they
could trade places with you there are at least a billion people who are suffering debilitating pain or political oppression or the acute stages of bereavement to have your health even just sort of to have friends even only a few to have hobbies or interests and the freedom to pursue them to have spent this this day free from some terrifying encounter with chaos is to be lucky just look around you and take a moment to feel how lucky you are you get another day to live on this Earth enjoy it
