Gratitude Optimization

Fragments from imaginary dialogues

“How can I optimize my Gratitude practice?”

“Through Contrasting you can amplify its effect.

Whenever you express gratitude for something, you can bring to mind its opposite. For instance, whenever you express gratitude for life, you can bring to mind death. Memento mori.

Another thing you can do is place every object of Gratitude in your life in relation to three fundamental categories:

Be / Be not
Can / Can not
Have / Have not

You can make a list of them. Something like:

Be
– Life
– BodyMind
– Health
…

Can
– Breathe
– Think
– Feel
– See
– Hear
– Smell
– Taste
– Move
– Create
– Learn
– Appreciate Beauty
…

Have
– Experiences
– Relationships
– Resources
– Ideas
– Tools
– Teachers
…

Reading the list can have a powerful effect because it shows an overview of everything you can be grateful for in your life.”

“You placed your BodyMind in the Being not the Having category.”

“It’s one of my axioms of being [<link; medium length]. As I see it, I don’t have a BodyMind; I AM a BodyMind.

The things in the Being category are the most powerful because they enable everything else.

The things in the Being Able To category come second because they enable everything in the third category.

Which is not to say that items in the third category are not important. All of them are.

It’s just a reminder that, whenever you express Gratitude for having something, to also express Gratitude for the things that make you able to enjoy them. To always have in view how they integrate in the Whole.

And, last but not least, you can conceptually connect Gratitude with Love, you can merge the two systems of meaning. You can see expressing Gratitude as an expression of Love.“

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