A lot has been written about the importance of gratitude - how it improves our general health and well being as well as being an integral part of a conscious life, with all the benefits that brings.
What might not be realized is how little gratitude we need to feel in order to have a significant effect. Andrew Weil, MD, who has written extensively on health and wellness, says that studies have scientifically proven that only seven days of being aware during the day of the things for which we are grateful, and then jotting them down at night before going to sleep, can improve our mood for up to six months!**
The trick to this, though,is finding the time in our fast paced and complex lives to put our attention to such things. We are so deeply involved in, and distracted by, things external that the effort to pay attention to our interior life can be initially very difficult.
Anthropologist and academic Angeles Arrien says a reflective life, where we take time to acknowledge and feel the joy of our blessings, requires a slower pace of life than most of us live. She goes even further to observe, after studying different cultures around the world that, in fact, the natural rhythm of life is medium to slow. It is only in modern western democracies where we have allowed the pace of normal life to spin faster and faster to such an extent that time for reflection and introspection has been almost completely eliminated.
Arrien cautions that we need time to be able to integrate our life experiences to make sense of them, and to use them to deepen our character through emotional and spiritual regeneration and renewal.
Slowing our pace to create a more reflective life requires more than just a change of attitude. It necessitates a complete transformation of our view of life. Fortunately, the examined life (as Plato calls it) pays great dividends, making any effort we make more than worth it.
