There are tangible moves we can make to develop a thankful mind and a grateful heart. Let’s go through them in turn.

1. If you have the 'Seeing through the Eyes of Gratitude' CD, you could listen to the recording a few times, then have it playing in the background while you do other things, as often as you like.
   
   
2. If you have a computer, check out the internet. Type in, ‘I am thankful’, or the word ‘gratitude’, and you’ll be joining with like-minded people on this wonderful journey.
   
   
3. Once every week send a note of gratefulness to someone who enriched your life in some way. They could be a friend or relative, the author of a book, or a teacher or a neighbour from long ago.
   
   
4. We know from the university research of Dr Robert Emmons that people who keep gratitude journals feel better about their lives in many ways: They sleep better at night, are more positive, have better health, and they make progress towards important goals. Most people write in their gratitude journal just before going to sleep. The idea is to reflect on the day and write down five things or events you can give ‘thanks’ for. It could be a letter from a friend, less pain than yesterday, a kind word from a work colleague, or one of the children saying or doing something nice. In the journal someone might include things from Nature, like seeing a special flower, or there being a shower of rain. Another might give thanks for a great movie or a book. It is whatever comes to mind, so long as you make an entry each day.
   
   
5. A variation on the gratitude journal is to write down fifty things you feel grateful for right now; then read through them every day, adding one or two more that come to mind, until the list seems to cover every aspect of your life.
   
   
6. Another exercise is to thank those who have served us in some way. For example, the waiter and chef at a restaurant, the usher taking our tickets at the movies, the postman and whoever cooked dinner or washed the dishes. We are served by others in so many ways throughout the day. The more people we share our gratitude with, the more we notice yet another who looks after our welfare in some way.
   
   
7. And finally, if you enjoy praying, you can open your heart in gratitude to a Divine Presence which is arranging every aspect of our lives. To do this, we can follow the advice of Meister Eckart and repeat often the words, “Thank you. Thank you”, like a mantra or prayer of gratitude. If we say it a few times whenever we feel or notice something special, such occasions will steadily increase. Also, if we say the prayer as soon as something unpleasant happens, we’ll soon begin to recognise that indeed, everything is either good or leading towards the good.

These are just some of the ways for building up a thankful mind and a grateful heart. Try out the ones that feel right, and you’ll notice the change I’m sure. It’s like smelling the fresh air after the rains broke the drought. It’s realising that life is sweet, joyful and bountiful whatever may come our way.