Vitamin G

"Go Thanking" every day for all the good feels.

Minnesota, 2022

Thank you for receiving me in your inbox every week. Thank you for sharing how these letters impact you and thank you for sharing them with friends. I am grateful for the opportunity to write, research and share about pleasure with you.

People who practice gratitude are more likely to achieve their goals. They work out more, sleep deeper, get better grades and perform better at work. Gratitude gives us access to happier memories and creates more loving bonds with friends. It stimulates the same pleasure network that is activated by a really delicious meal or great sex.

While comparison is the thief of joy, gratitude creates a state of equanimity and serenity. “Abundance isn’t having a lot of things,” says writer Eckhard Tolle. “It’s the feeling of fullness of life. If you see the good that is already in your life,” he says, “there is a tendency for more good things to come into your life.”

If you weren’t already sold, students practicing gratitude report having less acne and brighter skin.

What is gratitude? Is it an emotion, a thought, a trait? Maybe all of the above? Scientists generally agree that it means two things 1) we perceive a positive outcome and 2) there is some external source of this outcome (i.e. plants, minerals, vegetables, God, weather, luck.)

Want to up your Vitamin G game? Here are a few ideas. Please share yours.

• Go thanking. This is my husband Joe’s favorite method. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Close your eyes and conjure everyone you can think of —partners, parents, neighbors, the guy at the deli, the crossing guard, your second grade teacher—and say a thank you for one thing.

• When you drink a glass of water, take a moment to appreciate how that water got to you and how it nourishes every cell.

• Choose a commute — whether it is your walk to work or the commute from your bed to the coffee, make it your G-time. How good can you make yourself feel in this short amount of time by naming all the ways you are grateful?

• Look up. Clouds are great appreciators of appreciation, as are birds, the sun, the moon, and anything else up there that you see The very act of looking up can elevate your mood. Add some thank you’s and it’s as good as an oat milk latte.

• In the morning before you reach for your phone, close your eyes and take three inhales with gratitude for the air in your lungs and one for another day to be alive.

I am grateful to the Templeton Foundation for funding one of the first studies on gratitude. While they parse through their findings, how about we do some of our own research over here at The Pleasure Report?

What is your gratitude practice? Please share with us.

I AM GRATEFUL FOR WHAT I AM AND HAVE. MY THANKSGIVING IS PERPETUAL... OH HOW I LAUGH WHEN I THINK OF MY VAGUE INDEFINITE RICHES. NO RUN ON MY BANK CAN DRAIN IT, FOR MY WEALTH IS NOT POSSESSION BUT ENJOYMENT. — HENRY DAVID THOREAU