Gratitude

Gratitude:

Browsing online, as I usually do at night for a little inspiration, I came across this short video produced by soulpancake.com's "Happiness Laboratory"

ABOVE!!

Watching it will emphasize the post I'm making, but if you choose not to... it is essentially a group of people who are put on the spot to express their gratitude to a person that they believe had the greatest impact in their lives.

You can't help but to imagine the person you would have chosen yourself when they begin reading aloud to their chosen friend or family member.

The "scientist" character hosting the tests then gives each subject a test like the one before the calls were made to test their happiness. The level of happiness in each person rose anywhere from 2-19%!!!

There seems to be this illusion in our culture of receiving. As though to understand happiness one has to receive something from another, whether it be emotional or physical.

Our friendships/relationships are too often rated by what we get out of them, not what we put into them. There is something really beautiful about being told thank you. To have gratitude poured over you. But, to show gratitude to another can offer similar results.