Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

  • Home
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
    • About
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Contact

May 2, 2016 By Admin

Personal Gratitude Practices – With Sage Advice

Gratitude Practices to Improve your Emotional Mood

The following fourteen suggestions may improve your emotional mood.  One reward from practicing gratitude is that we tend to feel a little better no matter what our causes and conditions are at the time.  mindfulhappiness_GetHappy

Here is the list.

  1. Make a habit of thanking people.  “Thank you.” Appreciate what others have done and still do for you.
  2. Get into the habit of writing brief daily entries in your personal gratitude or happiness journal.  Write about anything that you experienced joy of gratitude for – no matter how small.
  3. When you get trapped into a negative thinking drift, STOP and take a moment to consider at least one thing you have gratitude for right now in your life.
  4. Practice downward comparison by comparing yourself and WHAT you have to other people who DO NOT have what you have.  Have compassion and appreciate the reality of the differences.
  5. Follow Maya Angelou’s advice: When you learn something new and helpful, teach it to others. When you receive something helpful, share it with others.
  6. If you are suffering now, consider joining up with others who may be suffering in similar ways – provide social and emotional support to each other, and have gratitude for the people you are with right now.
  7. Stop once or twice a day give give yourself a check-up.  So, how am I doing right now?  If you are doing well, carry on. If not, do something quick and safe that will improve the emotional quality of the present moment.
  8. Practice Japanese Naikan reflection.  At the very end of your day ask: What have I received today? What have I given today? What harm have I done today?  If you have caused harm, make amends for it.
  9. Volunteer a small amount of your time each month. Volunteer so you can help improve the quality of life for other people.  Consider this an act of kindness, and feel the inner gratitude in that you are able to make such a gift of time and compassion to others.
  10. Invite a small group of friends over to your home; sit in a circle, and share anything each of you have gratitude for.
  11. Consider practicing loving kindness meditation as your primary self-care habit.
  12. Do what Lee Brower (of Empowered Wealth) does.  Give people a gratitude stone or bead to keep in their pocket.  Encourage them to stop and note their gratitude for something (no matter how small) every time they touch it or become aware of it.   Make a habit of searching for “good” gratitude stones to give away.
  13. Do brief periods of walking meditation in nature.  Notice! Listen! See! Allow the wonders of natural environments to provide you with cues for gratitude.
  14. Follow the sage advice of the following people:

 a)  Elie Wiesel noted that a person can be defined by her/his attitude toward gratitude.

 b)  Julian of Norwich noted that all will be well, and to become aware of our rising we need to become aware of our falling.  Grace can transform personal failures into abundant, endless comfort.

 c)  Eric Hoffer noted that for humans the most difficult math to do is to count our blessings.

 d)  Melodie Beattie noted that the practice of gratitude can bring peace into our day.

 e)  Albert Schweitzer noted that when you feel all hope is lost, remember one small thing to be grateful for.

For more information refer to Lesowitz, N. and Sammons, M. B. (2009). Living Life as a Thank You: The Transformative Power of Daily Gratitude. New York, NY: Bristol Park Books; Aronson, B. C. (2006). Grace: Quotes and Passages for the Heart, Mind, and Soul.  New York, NY: Random House.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, VermontChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

CLICK HERE  or any image below to Order 

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

MindfulHappiness_Amazon           mindful-happiness_barnes_and_noble

Filed Under: Activities, ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, Emotional Regulation, Featured, Mindful Awareness, MIndfulness Tagged With: EMOTIONAL MOOD, GRATITUDE, MINDFUL HAPPINESS, PRACTICES

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

-Steps to Mind Training Anthony R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC To pacify your mind you need to train your mind. Mind training leads to liberation from brain-mind-heart-body automatic processes and reactions. A well-trained mind allows you to utilize executive functions (attention and concentration) to alter auto-reactions of the brain, body and heart. A trained mind liberates […]

ACT – The Absolute Basics; Acceptance & Commitment Therapy In this post I begin a series of writing dealing with ACT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. The details below are basic, but perhaps just enough to develop more interest in learning about ACT. Here we go! 1) Act, developed mainly by Steven Hayes Ph.D.and based on […]

Your  Regular  Practice:   Impact  on  Yourself  From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont Compassion Training:  Here is a quick self-assessment process to see if your regular compassion practice has had positive effects on you.  Review the questions below and decide  what  your  answers are. I hope you have noted pleasant […]

Human Beings Have Trouble BEING Human – Some Sound Advice from Dr Anthony Quintiliani The world today appears to be even more destructive than ever before in human history.  However, historians and violence researchers inform us that we as average persons are safer today than we were in the past.  Finger-tip access to world-wide media […]

Spiritual Mantras from Buddhism Spiritual Mantras:  Mantra practice is certainly not informal Buddhism, nor is it a way to apply practical mindfulness skills to life.  The path of mantra practice is much deeper than the psychological applications for good health. Mantra practice is a highly important part of formal Buddhist practice, especially on the spiritual […]

Core Elements in Clinical Supervision In addition to what supervisors bring into group supervision and clinical training, the list below will be used for discussion about YOUR supervisory role. The order of content below is generally random. The content noted applies to clinical supervision; it could also apply to doing effective therapy. The skills and […]

Help For Therapists: Working with Diversity Clinical interventions, especially strongly evidence-based interventions, impact clients via new skills and practices in mind-body clinical realities. No matter how good (or “good enough” ) a clinical intervention is it requires a highly positive, active therapeutic relationship. As ample research suggests, a strong and positive therapeutic relationship in therapy […]

Introducing Your Clients to Brief Meditations Psychotherapists often ask  about ways to introduce mindfulness and meditation to clients.  There are other posts on this Blog that offer basic introductory information on both content and process. Here I will simply introduce you to four brief, basic meditations for clients suffering from anxiety and/or depression, along with […]

Are You Happier Yet? Use Practical Mindfulness Skills   Two recent books offer sound advice about YOU becoming a happier person. L. Cypers Kamen (2017) Are You Happy Yet: Eight Keys to Unlocking a Joyful Life. New York: MFJ Books and D. Altman (2016) Cleansing Emotional Clutter… New York: MFJ Books offer practical ways to improve your personal level of happiness. […]

Deepak Chopra’s Ideas on “The Future of God” – Part 3 of In this third and last post I will discuss Deepak Chopra’s views of the three worlds of human experience: Material, Subtle, and Transcendent.  As usual, I will paraphrase and add my own comments as appropriate.  Belief in god or a higher power has […]

Expanded Information about Your Compassion Practices and Benefits Compassion Practice Tips and Exercises The Buddha noted that one should not dwell on the past, become too attached to future outcomes, but instead concentrate our mind only on the present moment of our experiences.  The Dalai Lama noted that compassion is a necessary condition for inner […]

Using Creativity in Clinical Supervision Effective clinical supervision is a combination of hearable direction about clinical practice, gentle-direct leadership, clinical “Know-How,” evidence-based skills, complex psychodynamics, and the willingness to work with others on their developmental processes. There are risks involved. I have provided clinical supervision and consultation to other clinicians for 43 years without a […]

“The Other Shore” to Happiness and Enlightenment Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, The Other Shore: A New Translation of The Heart Sutra…Berkeley, CA: Palm Leaves Press brings us on an inner journey toward a happier, more peaceful and enlightened life. Wisdom implies that we understand that life is made up of mental formations, no-self (more clarifications later), […]

 Poem on the Wind   I am quite pleased with my experience on BEING in the wind today.  This poem will suggest that you allow the wind to be a metaphor – even a fantasy – that allows your pain and suffering to be swept away by the endless, gentle, blowing wind of nature. We […]

Improving Client/Patient Collaboration  in Treatment To improve collaboration between you and your clients/patients, simply practice the following behaviors as your norms.  See the list below, and practice, practice, practice. Present with an attitude of helpfulness and authentic caring. Empathy and authentic concern are required. Recognize the reality that clients/patients are at different levels of readiness […]

Trauma Informed Care – The Absolute Basics This post aims at providing a very basic introduction to Trauma Informed Care.  Advanced versions of this information are available from the author.  So what is Trauma Informed Care (hereafter TIC)?  Below I have listed rationales of need and core characteristics of TIC in organizations. Why We Need […]

Vipassana Meditation – Emptiness One of the great insights from regular, long-term vipassana practice is the experience of emptiness. The actual knowing of it by the experience of it. This is not your typical conceptual emptiness of the West; it is not total void, negative beings, or nihilistic pit, or suffering in endlessness.  It is […]

How Suicide impacts Psychotherapists One of the greatest fears of psychotherapists is that one of their clients will commit suicide.  Here are some common reactions of psychotherapists when one of their clients commits suicide.  In some ways these reactions are sequential, but no exact concrete sequence is well documented. Here is a list to consider. […]

How to Find & Choose an Effective Therapist Recently The Harvard Health Newsletter posted some interesting questions to ask while seeking out a psychotherapist. I will add a few more details and areas of inquiry in this post. Keep in mind that these questions and inquiries do not mean you will be happy and improve […]

Mindful Walking Meditation: How to Walk by Thich Nhat Hanh – A Powerful Short Book of Wisdom In my opinion, Thich Nhat Hanh and The 14th Dalai Lama are the two most important and wise teachers of mindfulness, meditation, compassion, and Buddhism in the 21st century.  Below I will offer my interpretation of Thich Nhat Hanh’s […]

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Site Map

Copyright © 2023 · Mindful Happiness