LC Exercise #2 Part 2: The Appreciation Project

School:
-I love learning

-I’m surrounded by people who also enjoy learning

-Makes me smarter!

-Have friends there (who I originally met through school)

-Opens up so many opportunities (possibly better college and job!)

-We’re a Blue Ribbon School!

-We have an incredibly diverse community

-Some people don’t get to have an education (think child labor!- or child soldiers!)

-In many countries girls are often denied schooling

-Just being literate is an advantage we don’t even realize!

-All the homework and tests and bad teachers are not really a big deal at all in the scheme of things

-This year I have all really good teachers

-The amount of work we have could be much worse (we value social lives, extracurricular activities, and creativity much more than many other countries)

Family:

-They love me no matter what

-I’m almost never bored or lonely with my sisters around

-I can be extremely weird around them and they’ll still like me!

-My parents try to give me everything and just want the best for me

-My mom is always there to listen to me

-Even when I’m not nice to them, they’re still nice to me!

-My sisters look up to me and my parents are proud of me no matter what

-My parents drive me everywhere, pay for basically everything, and take care of me constantly

-Everyone’s healthy!

-Some people don’t have siblings (some can’t have siblings! One Child Policy!)

-Some people don’t have parents!!

-I am who I am mostly because of them!

-Even though we fight, we always forgive each other eventually

Listing out why these things are so great and how lucky I am to have them definitely helped me appreciate them more fully. Especially when it comes to school, I don’t think I’ll enjoy it any more than I normally do, but I definitely won’t be complaining nearly as much. It really got me thinking about all the kids who are just struggling to survive and don’t even have time to think about getting an education, while I’m stressing out over how much homework I still have to do because I decided to go out instead of writing my lab report! It’s really insane when you think about it. 99.9% of the stuff I complain about is pretty trivial, and I’m extremely fortunate to have those things be the worst of my problems.

When it came to the family portion of this exercise though, pathetically, I had a huge fight with my parents the same night I wrote this. Although the fight was over the dumbest thing, I seriously felt like I hated them in the moment- but the next morning it was like it never even happened and everything was fine again. So that is why the last bullet point was written. It’s pretty unrealistic for me to think I’m going to try so much harder to get along with them and that we’ll never fight. In the moment I did actually think about all the things I wrote, but I still continued to fight with them anyways. It wasn’t until the next day that thinking about all the good things was actually able to change my mood. So believe me, I tried, but it was sadly unsuccessful; the small things still got to me. On a regular day though when I’m not in a terrible mood, or when we’re having a nice family moment, I think I’ll stop and appreciate it a little more than I normally would- it just won’t prevent me from getting into that terrible mood..

I liked this exercise because normally I’m the type of person who, when I’m really upset about something, will actually list out all the bad things about it (not because I’m pessimistic, but more just because writing out lists makes me so much less stressed; it’s just a way for me to organize my thoughts). This is the opposite, and is much more positive and productive. And although it may only prevent me from getting annoyed at some things, it is still just nice to have as a reminder when I do succumb to those negative emotions. The next time I start to complain about having to stay up late to study for a test, I’ll try to be thankful that I have a test to complain about! It really only means that the school system and the government actually care about my progress and want to make sure I’m really learning- it’s not designed to purposely give kids panic attacks. If that’s all we have to worry about, then that’s actually pretty wonderful.

In class we learned how much just being grateful increases people’s happiness levels, and this exercise definitely proves that to be true. If I said this made such a huge difference in my life and that everything’s changed now, I would be lying, but just making the effort to appreciate something fully certainly does have an effect on your happiness levels because it helps to eliminate the negative emotions that bring that level down. In short, being thankful will not make you a million times happier, but it is the answer to being content!