This comes from what is called "Positive Psychology." Not a big fan for a. couple of significant reasons, but parts of it have proved to be helpful for many people. Just as a damaged mind (not brain) inflicts further damage ionitself, as well as being a means of hurting other people, a more balanced and healthier perspective can turn things around for the better. We can teach ourselves to manage things like stress, anxiety, and fear and, in turn, improve our physical health and extend our longevity. It's a type of mental training that requires mental toughness. Something that we all have but that too few people dare attempt. As I think of it, we nurture mental toughness by training our minds to work for us rather than against us.
I'm not advocating that practicing gratitude the way it's described in the article is for everyone. What they describe are examples that we can tailor to suit our individuality. Gratitude was greatly emphasized in my program of recovery when I first got sober in 1983. It helped me to go twenty five years without a drink. It also helped me to turn my thinking and my behavior around, which then allowed me to succeed in areas of my life in which I had previously and repeatedly failed. And it was my stubborn unwillingness to practice gratitude and practice humility around my accomplishments that lead to my relapse, for several years before I finally picked up the drink.
Sadly, the most unhappy and most unfulfilled people tend to refuse to even consider practicing gratitude as therapeutic -- always finding something to complain about -- or even attempt practicing gratitude more than a couple of times before cataloging it as yet another failure to complain about. And they need it more than anyone. Fortunately, the truly miserable who make a genuine effort to change are also those people who benefit most from practicing gratitude.
It's become my mantra. It's always all about the doing and not about the outcome. The process itself, at any moment, is always the outcome. We are what we do. It's a terrible thing that so many of us never learn this simple lesson.