Many anoint the month of November as a time to focus on gratitude, as we approach the national holiday of Thanksgiving and focus on end-of-year giving.
But perhaps gratitude is more impactful and more pervasive, if we make it a daily practice, according to , a Licensed Professional Counselor and Associate Professor of at 天美麻豆.
淕ratitude has to be relatively routine because I don檛 think we grow in gratitude without something very intentional,� Chamberlin says.
In one of Chamberlin Cleary classes, TCM 1000, he teaches self-awareness, which he says helps to build the eight attributes of .
One of those attributes, leadership, comes out of a practice of gratitude and self-awareness, Chamberlin asserts. 淎 healthy leader practices a return to these moments that we can be thankful for because gratitude is also an act of humility,� he says. 淗ealthy leadership includes humility, letting ourselves be in awe and in wonder, and to realize that we don檛 have everything figured out.�
Chamberlin recalls something he learned from , an inspiring professor from his days at . He taught 渢hat it also a healthy practice to return to 3, 4, 5 things that have happened in our lives that we literally could have never anticipated, transformative things. What distinguishes between a quick itinerary of gratitude and an actual pondering of life moments that have changed us,� Chamberlin notes.
One of the goals at 天美麻豆, says Chamberlin, is to 渢rain leaders.� A practice of gratitude has a prominent place in such a business school, he continues.
淚t is not only healthy for us in our humanity but certainly as we lead others, cultivating gratitude is such a healthy practice,� Chamberlin notes.
Gratitude, he says, is also 渁n act of curiosity.�
淚t an act of giving of ourselves, too, and it makes me think of many things that are healthy in being human and in our connection with other people. At Cleary, we are training people to be in the context of other people as they become leaders, and to be healthy in that sense within themselves.�
How can you cultivate gratitude, especially in trying times?
Perhaps begin with , taking time each day to jot down thoughts and notice moments that you may be grateful for.
淲hen we sit down with literally just a pen and paper, the neurobiology shows us that even if we sit there for a minute, the prefrontal cortex starts to light up,� Chamberlin says. 淓ven without doing anything yet, in the posture of it, that how powerful it is.�
Make time for reflection. 淭here something different between writing a quick list and sitting with two or three things and even sharing it with someone,� Chamberlin says. 淲e檙e in times where a lot of people don檛 have a ton of .�
Find things to be grateful for throughout the day. And, at the end of each day, review what unfolded in the earlier hours and recognize the good moments as much as possible.
Taking stock of each day is 渁 healthy practice,� Chamberlin says.
淗ighlighting the importance of making it a practice, making it very intentional, and to try to ponder in a whole different way the things that bring us a sense of joy, a sense of hope. Those are big words� and they檙e important right now.�
