"Gratitude is putting your head in the sand." Or is it?

I'm a big advocate of a gratitude practice.

I ask students to express gratitude at the end of every single one of my classes. It's one of the first tools I suggest when friends consult with me about life challenges. I personally try to always operate from a place of gratitude.

I really believe it's at the root of how to live a healthy, balanced, and joyful life.

So I was surprised when someone close to me challenged this practice suggesting that expressing gratitude was just ignoring what's really going on in the world.

Their perspective is that gratitude is just sugar-coating everything. It's the same as putting your head in the sand.

To them, it means denying the chaos, the challenges, and the realities of what's really going on. And right now there are certainly a lot difficulties going on in the world. And more personally, we all experience challenges on a regular basis.

So what's the point in being grateful?

For me, making time to be grateful shifts our own mindset to see challenges from a different perspective NOT that we don't see the challenge at all.

Gratitude softens our heart and enables us to be more compassionate and kind in our perspective. Challenges are rarely black and white or right or wrong. They can be complex with a variety of things to consider. And gratitude can help round out the complexities.

All I know is that gratitude has certainly helped me to feel joy and abundance in some of the most difficult times in my own life. I'm a believer and I continue to practice gratitude each and every day. There's a reason so many new thought and spiritual thinkers as well as religions advocate gratitude. (Think Oprah, Eckhart Tolle, and Thich Nhat Hanh)

Try it for yourself. Take a moment, right now, to acknowledge at least 3 things you are grateful for (people, feelings, states of being, stuff).

Really do it. Take a moment. Right now.

Now notice how you feel in this moment. And even the rest of the day. Gratitude matters. And it is a powerful practice that can change the way you see the world which changes the way you see your own life.