The power of gratitude

It’s easy to take the important people in our lives for granted, but research suggests that if we experience and express gratitude for them, our relationships will be stronger, and our lives will be happier. I’m sure you have heard of the benefits and positive impact of being thankful for all the good things in your life. That is an effective way to bring energy, boost positivity, and enhance the quality of your life. There is also another way to achieve the same. It is a bit counter-intuitive because you try to gain positivity by using negativity — sort of.

Enter Mental Subtraction. Mental subtraction counteracts our tendency to take positive events in our lives—such as meeting a great person—as givens. When we consider the circumstances that led to a chance encounter, we may be surprised by how unlikely that meeting actually was, and how lucky we were that it happened as it did. While it can be painful to think about not having met someone close to us, this scenario provides a negative contrast against which our current situation can be favorably compared.

Ready to give it a try? This exercise is designed to stoke feelings of gratitude for one of these people— such as a romantic partner or close friend — by asking you to think about what your life might have been like had you never met them. By getting a taste of their absence, you should be able to appreciate their presence in your life more deeply—without actually having to lose them for real.

https://ggia.berkeley.edu/