Boost Your Gratitude with SCIENCE
22 Jul 2025 · 1 min

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Daniel Pink explains mental subtraction of positive events: imagine your life without someone or something good to boost gratitude. He walks you through the exercise right now.

Daniel Pink explains mental subtraction of positive events: imagine your life without someone or something good to boost gratitude. He walks you through the exercise right now.
Instead of just listing things you're grateful for, because let's be honest, there's endless advice telling you to write them down or say them out loud, imagine your life without them. What if you never met your best friend, never got that job that redirected your career, never moved to the place where you built your life? This is called mental subtraction of positive events, and research shows that by mentally removing something good, your brain appreciates it more. So try it right now. Pick one thing in your life, imagine it never happened, and feel that deep sense of thankfulness.