I love the month of November and the opportunity to reflect on our blessings! I also love it because of how it prepares us for Advent. I think gratitude is to Advent, like a nutrient rich fertilizer is to a healthy garden. Without it, the outcome is weak and lacking. Since Advent is the time of year where we prepare ourselves for the best blessing of all, the birth of our Savior, it’s critical that we cultivate a heart that can fully recognize and appreciate that gift.
Studies have proven that being able to recognize the blessings in our life, can improve our physical and mental health. It doesn’t stop there though! Gratitude is also essential to our spiritual well-being, especially during Advent when we are preparing ourselves for the greatest gift of all.
Since having an attitude of gratitude is important to our Advent experience, it will be helpful to know where we are, in terms of thankfulness, before we begin. It’s hard to accurately assess the level of gratitude in a person’s heart since it depends on their desire to grow and their willingness to be assessed.
I invite you to consider taking the following survey. It can help shed light on areas of your life where you could practice more focused gratitude. When I first took it, I was on retreat, so I was in a great frame of mind to be open and honest while taking it. If you decide to survey yourself in light of gratitude, I encourage you to be super honest with yourself. The experience proved to be very eye-opening for me!
Here’s to a grateful heart that’s open and ready to be prepared for the ultimate gift. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
GRATITUDE SURVEY *
Below is a short Gratitude Survey that will give you an idea of how grateful you are.
DIRECTIONS: Please rate each of these items according to the following scale:1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Slightly disagree, 4 = Neutral, 5 = Slightly agree, 6 = Agree, 7=strongly agree
_____1. I have so much in life to be thankful for.
_____2. If I had to list everything I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list.
_____3. I am grateful to a wide variety of people.
_____4. When I look at the world, I don’t see much to be grateful for.
_____5. As I get older I find myself more able to appreciate the people,
events, and situations that have been part of my life history.
_____6. Long periods of time can go by before I feel grateful for something
or to someone.
How do you score your Gratitude Survey?
- Step one: Add up your scores for the positive questions: items 1, 2, 3, and 5.
- Step two: Reverse your scores for the negative questions: items 4 and 6 (for example, if you scored 7, give yourself 1; if you scored 6, give yourself 2).
- Step three: Add the reversed scores for items 4 and 6 to the total from Step 1. This is your total gratitude Score. It should be between 6 and 42.
What does your score mean?
In terms of gratitude,
- If you scored 35 or below, you are in the bottom one-fourth of people who have taken this survey.
- If you scored 38 or below, you are in the bottom one-half of people who have taken this survey.
- If you scored between 39 and 41, you are in the top one-fourth
- if you scored 42, you are in the top one-eighth.
- Women tend to score slightly higher than men and older people tend to score higher than younger people.
If you don’t like your score, what can you do about it?
If your score is lower than you thought or lower than you would like, don’t accept it! The first step to growing in gratitude is to decide to do it. Then, take a look the other posts in this series, especially How to Cultivate Gratitude .
* Resource for survey www.authentichappiness.com