Happiness starts from within

Hi Sweet Humans,

Last week I talked a little bit about my gratitude journey.

Today I want to share one of my favorite TEDTalks from Brother David Steindl-Rast about the connection between happiness and gratefulness, and how powerful gratefulness is. This 15 minute video that has been viewed by more than 2.5 million people reassures my belief that we are happy because we are grateful, not the other way around.

He explains that gratefulness works when we experience something that is given and valuable to us. Given is really the main emphasis here. It’s not something that we bought, earned or worked for. It’s a given thing, a git. When we experience something given and we feel that it’s valuable to us, gratefulness will spontaneously rise.

He mentions that the key is to not only experience gratefulness once in a while but it’s all about grateful living. Grateful living starts with becoming aware that every moment is a valuable gift. That valuable gift is called opportunity. Every moment is an opportunity. If we avail ourselves to it, it is the key to happiness. 

Life won’t be smooth sailing all the time, so we can’t be grateful for every moment. But we still can be grateful for the opportunity because even in difficult times we still have an opportunity to learn and rise again.

Towards the end of the video he shares a simple method for living gratefully moment by moment:

Stop, look and go.

Watch the rest of the video below to find out more about this method. Let’s discuss in the comment section below, how important you think for us to be grateful? Do you agree that happy people are grateful people? 

I’ve been trying to practice my gratitude especially this year and next week I’m going to share with you step-by-step, simple, practical actions that you can do. Make sure you subscribe to Isabelle Moon’s newsletter so you don’t miss it!

Love,

Meghan