I start every day in my gratitude chair.
There are a hundred ways to start a day. Man can reach for your phone before you've even had time to open your eyes properly. Read your emails. Check the news. See what's happening on social media. Start thinking about today's problems, meetings and everything that needs to be done.
I'm trying to do something else.
I get up, have my coffee, and sit in a chair at home. I call it the gratitude chair. I sit there for about five minutes. No advanced meditation. No app. No achievement. I just think about what I'm grateful for.
There are always things that are not good.
My life is not perfect, of course. There are things I worry about. Things that haven't turned out the way I imagined. Disappointments, problems, and people I miss. Just like everyone else. And if I wanted to, I could probably fill those five minutes with that.
But why start there?
Why let the first thoughts of the day be about what I miss, what I'm irritated about or what could go wrong?
I choose to do the opposite.
I think about the people I love. About family. About friendship. About waking up to another day. About my body and what it can still do. About the work I get to do. About the people I've met. About the opportunities I've had and the experiences I've gained. Sometimes it's big things. Sometimes very small. A conversation the day before. Someone who made me laugh. A cup of coffee. That the sun is shining. That I'll be working out later.
The important thing isn't really what I'm grateful for. The important thing is that I remind myself that there is something to be grateful for.
What you look for, you tend to find.
I believe that we humans are largely influenced by what we choose to focus our attention on.
If I constantly tell myself and others how hard life is, how stupid people are, how bad society has become, and how much is going against me, then I will also become very good at discovering everything that confirms that picture.
The negative is there. I don't have to look very far for that.
But the same thing actually applies the other way around.
If I start to actively pay attention to what works, the people who are kind, the opportunities that exist, and the things in life that are actually good, I also start to see more of it. Not because the problems disappear. But because the problems no longer get the whole picture for themselves.
Positive thinking doesn't mean turning a blind eye
For me, this is not about going around pretending everything is amazing. I don't believe in that.
If something is wrong, you should try to do something about it. If you have problems, you have to deal with them. If you are sad, you can be sad.
Gratitude is not about denying reality.
It's about remembering that reality almost always consists of more than the problems .
You can have a tough time and at the same time have people who love you.
You can be worried about the future and at the same time appreciate the day ahead.
You can have lost something and still be grateful for what you have left.
Those things can exist simultaneously.
I believe in the power of what we say.
I've long thought that what we say has a strange ability to influence our lives. Not necessarily in any supernatural way. But The words we use affect our thoughts. Thoughts affect our feelings. Feelings affect our actions. And our actions ultimately affect a lot of the life we actually have.
Do you say every morning:
“This is going to be a crappy day.”
...then at least you haven't given the day particularly good conditions.
But instead, you start with:
"I have a lot to be grateful for. This could be a really good day."
…so maybe the world outside the armchair is exactly the same. But you face it in a different way. And that can make a bigger difference than you think.
Five minutes won't change your life but maybe the direction of your day
That's what I like about my gratitude chair. It requires almost nothing from me. Five minutes. A cup of coffee. And a few thoughts about things that are already there but are so easy to take for granted.
Then I get up and start the day.
I still don't know what it will contain. Something could go wrong. Someone could annoy me. A problem could arise that I didn't anticipate . But At least I've decided where I want to start .
Not worried.
Not in irritation.
Not in everything I miss.
But in what I actually have.
Try it yourself tomorrow
Before you open your emails. Before you read the news. Before you start thinking about everything you have to do. Sit down for five minutes. Think of three, four, or five things that you are actually grateful for. It doesn't have to be fancy. And feel free to say them out loud.
Then you get on with your day.
It won't make every day perfect. It won't take away life's problems. But I think we underestimate the importance of what thought we choose to start the day with .
For me, it starts in an armchair, with a cup of coffee and five minutes of gratitude. And I intend to continue with that. Because life doesn't always turn out the way we want it to. But we can at least influence the eyes with which we choose to meet it.
All the best Kennet Båth
