Bleh. Gratitude Again… – Alternative to Gratitude Bingo

I see gratitude ideas all over Pinterest, and one of the popular ideas right now is Bingo Cards. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely think they are cute and fun (obviously because I made one), but I think this gratitude stuff is overwhelming. When I am in the dumps of depression, the concept of gratitude might as well be as far away as the depths of outer space. Hearing the word makes me crinkle my nose and make an audible groaning sound. I am over it. But… there is definitely some science behind it that says it is good for me. Yuck. Then, I got to thinking, what if we just called it something else? Can we make it less of a trendy mental health concept and more of something my brain can digest? I think the answer is yes.

So, what essentially means the same as “gratitude” but does not feel the same when I say it, read it, or hear it? By definition, gratitude is, “the state of being grateful”(Merriam-Webster, 2019) and being grateful means, “feeling or showing thanks.”(Definition of GRATEFUL, n.d.) Okay, I could work with that. I looked up a list of synonyms of gratitude and stumbled across “appreciation.” To appreciate is to, “to grasp the nature, worth, quality, or significance of.”(Definition of APPRECIATE, 2020) I actually think I like the concept of appreciating things better than I like the concept of being grateful for them, even though technically they are probably the same. It just feels different to hear someone say, “I appreciate you,” rather than, “I am grateful for you.”

And, thus an Appreciation Bingo Board. I am hoping this helps make this concept more palatable for someone else like it did for me. Sending this with love.