Essays · Oct 7, 2025 · 6 min read
Black Belt Gratitude
How to feel thankful when you don't feel like it.
1. Life of a King
Take stock of what you have today that a king 300 years ago could only dream of. Grocery stores, air conditioning, washing machines. What allows me to accomplish tasks in a miraculously fast manner, thanks to the creativity of those before us?
2. Get Into Your Body
Hold your hand over your kidneys and recall the miraculous things they do. Your heart has been beating every single day. Your lungs extract oxygen from the trees, whenever you need, with no subscription fee.
3. Write Your Role Models
Who took an extra moment to be kind to you? Who truly understood you? Who invited you into a higher standard? Don't forget the dead — I am grateful for the inventor of penicillin, for Nikola Tesla. When we genuinely admire others, we become connected to the good in ourselves.
4. Find a Daily Rhythm
When I start each meal with a short expression of gratitude, the food tastes better. Consider everything it took for that red fruit to exist before you.
5. Black Belt Gratitude
Dr. David Hawkins wrote: "Every emotion we experience has a payoff. There is always a part of us that gets a certain satisfaction from the emotion, or we wouldn't keep it." Ask: what am I getting out of feeling offended? What fear would gratitude expose?
6. Second Degree Black Belt
Viktor Frankl had the creativity and courage to find gratitude in the most dire circumstances. What if everything in your life — even the pain — was happening for you, not to you?
7. Gallows Gratitude
Bringing levity and playfulness to dire circumstances can help. It accepts "it could always be worse" with a wink and a nudge.