To appreciate something is to pay attention to its value (and in so doing, to increase its value in our own eyes). When we don’t do this, we fail to see the value in the people, situations and things around us – they depreciate (lose value) in our eyes.
So, why do we do this? After all, why would we want any part of our lives to lose value?
Well we don’t want to but often people get focused on other things and many things get overlooked or taken for granted.
This Thanksgiving weekend, I want to remind you of the value of appreciation.
Gratitude is the gateway to greater happiness. It’s simple, but not easy, because we’re conditioned to pay attention to the negative.
Meanwhile the good stuff in our lives rarely needs our attention urgently. This is why we need to work on training ourselves to see the good around us – otherwise, the problems and negative circumstances will control our focus and overshadow the good in our lives.
A daily gratitude practice, where you write down what you’re grateful for each day, can help, because it starts to retrain the mind to be on the lookout for the good around us.