This is Optimal Living Daily. Stop creating gratitude lists and do this instead by Kristen Manieri

with Gottman.com. And I'm Justa Mollick, your narrator sharing articles every day of the year with some of my

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optimize your life. Stop creating gratitude lists and do this instead by Kristen Manieri with Gottman.com.

In the many self-improvement and positive psychology books I've read over the years,

one common finding has appeared again and again. True contentment in life comes from our ability to cultivate gratitude.

At the advice of these authors, gurus, and sages, I've embarked on writing daily gratitude

lists, scrawled on notepads and in fancy gratitude journals. I've encouraged the sharing

of gratitudes at dinner with my family, used gratitude apps and reminders, and made impromptu

lists in my head to emotionally transition from frustration to peace.

It works, which is why I am such a huge fan of gratitude.

Gratitude and I go way back.

But last December, I had a thought, what if I was short-changing my experience of gratitude

by keeping it all to myself, closed into journals, and limited to my husband and two kids?

It was time to level up my gratitude practice.

To Amazon I went, ordering 365 thank you notes, arriving in packs of 36 and 48, and splashed with flowers and polka dots in a kaleidoscope of colors. With January 1st on the

near horizon, the plan was set. I would write one thank you note every day for the next 365 days

with an aim to upgrade my sense of gratitude by the end of 2018. It worked. Over the course of the

past year, I've sent thank you notes to colleagues, family, and friends.

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