It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow here in the US, and you’ve probably seen a lot of articles about the benefits of gratitude. Studies have shown over and over that people with some sort of gratitude practice have better mental health outcomes and stronger social connection.
But there’s something really interesting in the research about gratitude that most people don’t know about… The gratitude practice that shows particularly strong positive results is reflecting on counterfactual or mental subtraction questions.
What does that mean? When we reflect on what life would be like without a good thing or how a good thing almost didn’t happen, it increases our appreciation and generates more insight than the standard lists of things we’re grateful for.
In today’s Humanizing Work Show episode, Peter and I share our answers to a few of our favorite counterfactual gratitude questions. And on the episode page, you can download a list of 23 questions you can draw from for great conversation at your Thanksgiving dinner table.
Check it out here!
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