Want to be happy? Practice gratitude.

TED is a non-profit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). Beginning as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, today TED covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. If you haven’t experienced TED.com yet, I invite you to get lost in their website when you have a spare hour…or two. 
  
I recently watched the TED Talk Want to be happy? Be grateful.  Here, Brother David Steindl-Rast introduces the idea that it’s not happiness that makes us grateful, it’s gratefulness that makes us happy. He re-inspired the awareness within me that every moment is a given moment, every moment is a gift. This moment, with all the opportunity it contains, is a “gift moment” as he describes it.  It’s easy to forget that, getting lost in our daily routines and to-do’s. I am commonly subject to the mental spasms of my mind and all of its desires, reservations, and commotion. This video is a great reminder to bring our awareness to the now, to the moment, and to not take ourselves too seriously. Rather than working to achieve happiness, let’s find ways to relish in all we have to be grateful for and happiness will modestly and naturally emerge. 

---