Fathoming Abundance

My gratitude practice has, over the months and years of doing a daily journal, waxed and waned.  It has become stale and predictable.  What should we be grateful for, and how?

Panda Planner, where I got my jumpstart in doing daily gratefulness, just has three lines in the daily planner for "grateful" and three lines for "looking forward to."

More specifically, Stephen Dubner says that we should be grateful "for three things that went well."

Another source that I can't remember says be grateful for three things: "another person, a thing in the world, and yourself, for something that you did"

"Things that went well" is different than "a person, a thing, yourself."

Leo Babauta at Zen Habits says that we should make gratitude part of a practice throughout the day, not just a once-a-day thing, like when we're bored, overwhelmed.  We should "appreciate the gift of the moment" 

I could pay attention to how my body feels, the texture of my breath, the light all around me, the nature sitting right in front of my face, the sounds of the world busy in activity. The vibrant colors, the life that’s struggling to survive and thrive. The feeling of just being alive.

Adam Grant says that you should put gratitude "into action" by thanking people.  

At some point, what I realized is one of the greatest acts of giving that you can undertake is to make the other givers in your life feel appreciated. And the only way that you can do that is to go out of your way to show gratitude and for me, that’s, that’s rarely in the moment. It’s more often months, or even years later when the person has forgotten the act or the moment has faded from their memory, but it still sticks with me. And so the practice I’ve most enjoyed during the pandemic is finding my dormant ties — some of the people I’ve lost touch with — and letting them know how, you know, eight, nine years ago, they really fundamentally affected my life in a positive way.

On Twitter Grant says:

The point of gratitude is not just to feel it; it's to show it.

Experiencing gratitude serves our happiness. Expressing it reminds others how they matter.

As an emotion inside a journal, gratitude is fleeting. As an action in the outer world, it lasts. 

There's this description of gratefulness at Mindful.org

It is wonder; it is appreciation; it is looking at the bright side of a setback; it is fathoming abundance; it is thanking someone in your life…it is “counting blessings.” It is savoring.