Hey there —

How do you practice gratitude? 🙏

The ritual you’re probably most familiar with is to list things, places, or people you’re grateful for. If you search “gratitude” on Amazon or Target, it’ll serve you a buffet of gratitude journals to help you record just that.

However, it turns out this method is more market-driven than peer-reviewed. 🧐

Don’t get us wrong — practicing gratitude has far-reaching positive effects, from boosting our mental and physical well-being to improving sleep.

But new research is reshaping what an effective gratitude ritual actually looks like.

In Dr. Andrew Huberman’s podcast, The Huberman Lab, Huberman explains how effective gratitude practices don’t focus on giving gratitude but rather on perceiving or receiving it.

This happens when we’re listening to stories. It’s more powerful than scribbling a list, Huberman explains, because our brains are built for storytelling. 🧠 

It embeds us in a situation, leading us to resonate with the narrative and deepen our sense of gratitude. And if we recall the story in our gratitude practice enough times, it can reduce fear and anxiety while boosting our motivation levels.

In other words, an effective gratitude practice is when you recite or recall either:

➜ A time you received genuine thanks from someone, which made you feel warm and fuzzy

(e.g., you get an email from a subscriber saying how your videos changed their life).

➜ A time when a person expresses thanks to someone else

(e.g. someone who was saved by a firefighter during a natural disaster).

If you’re looking to upgrade your gratitude practice, here's the blueprint:

Step 1️⃣: Pick and condense your narrative story.

It could either be a few paragraphs or bullet points, in a physical journal or in your phone. There’s no “correct” method — it’s whatever feels best to you!

Step 2️⃣: Set and commit to a low-maintenance cadence.

According to Huberman, it only takes a few minutes three times a week to feel the benefits of this practice. In fact, most people observed major effects occur from just five minutes of regular gratitude practice.

With Thanksgiving around the corner 🦃, many of us are reflecting on what we’re grateful for. But considering gratitude’s benefits, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t practice it all year long. And this time, you’ll be equipped with some newfound knowledge to take your practice to the next level.

Travel is no cure for the mind

by Lawrence Yeo

The idea that an exciting new life is a one-way ticket away is enamoring. Who doesn’t want to trade daily life (and its mess and monotony) for a fresh start by the beaches of Thailand? 🌴

But running away to a new place won’t cure any unresolved or internal problems you might have. That’s because you’re always traveling with one constant: yourself.

In this article, Lawrence Yeo teaches us how to embrace the “Box of our Daily Experience,” rather than look for fulfillment at a faraway destination.

Read the article →

The consumerism curse

by Om Malik

For writer Om Malik, quitting smoking was one of the hardest things he’s ever done. 🚬

But there’s one bad habit that’s been even harder for him to ditch. It’s not caffeine, sugar, or gambling — it’s consumerism.

As seen with clothing hauls and fast fashion trends, we’re encouraged to buy more — even if we don’t even wear or use a fraction of what we already own. Malik dives into consumerism's negative impacts in this eye-opening (and unsettling) piece.

Read the article →

OneBag - The Art of Minimalist Travel

by r/onebag via Reddit

Imagine you’re about to go on a month-long trip interrailing in Europe. 😁

But there’s a catch — you can only go if you can fit all your stuff into a single backpack. Could you do it?

No sweat — there’s an entire subreddit dedicated to the art of minimalist travel. r/onebag is a virtual community of people who pack as lightly as possible so they can focus less on logistics and more on the experience of travel.

If you never want to pay for checked baggage again, you’ll love this subreddit.

Check out the subreddit →

QUESTION
How can I find a niche as a “multipotentialist”? There's nothing I'm an expert at because my available time is divided between so many topics I love (cameras, classical music, cooking, history, languages). If I do choose one, I’m worried I’ll regret my choice.

— Thomas V., Leuven, Belgium

ANSWER
I think you need to ask yourself: What’s the purpose of these pursuits? Are you playing with cameras because it’s fun or because you want to turn it into a business? Today we place so much emphasis on turning our passions into a profit that we forget to play.

If you’re the kind of person who considers themselves a multipotentialist (a word I just learned today btw), I’d encourage you to forget about finding a “niche.” Forget about the money and just explore your interests.

While you likely won’t become the world’s best photographer, musician, or chef, you will find the joy in life that so many of us miss.

I stumbled across a great post on r/LifeProTips recently that hits the nail on the head.

“Kill the idea that you have to be good at things to enjoy them, that every hobby has to become something you're good at and that you can earn something from it. Sing off key, draw poorly, let your food burn. This will make your hobby more relaxed and you will try more things.”

It’s hard to put it any better than that.

— Matt

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Written by Alice Lemée

Edited by Matt D'Avella & Kerstin Sheppard