We all are familiar with the feeling that things are not as they should be in terms of success, relationships, material possessions. This feeling can make you look outwards with envy and inwards with disappointment.

The easiest gratitude exercise with the most solid research behind it is gratitude journaling. It involves sitting down for a few minutes, 1-3 times a week, and writing down 5 to 10things you are grateful for.

• When your brain recognizes that someone is doing something positive for you, it reacts with gratitude to motivate you to repay them.
• This gratitude makes you care about others and others care about you.
• It became an evolutionary ad...

In the last two decades, researchers have started to work on ways to counteract our chronic dissatisfaction. This is how positive psychology was born - the study of what makes life worth living, while cognitive behavioral therapy was developed to change negative feelings.

• Gratitude directly counteracts negative feelings and traits, like envy and social comparison, narcissism, cynicism, and materialism.
• People that are happy no matter what, tend to be happier and more satisfied; they have better relationships and eas...

The ability to experience more or less gratitude is not equally distributed.