Developing Gratitude Through Struggle via /r/gratitude

If you are wondering how can you be more grateful, add more struggle to your life. Personally, BJJ has worked wonders for me. I'm a person who doesn't like being rough but having stressful competitions really makes me more grateful for the ordinary moments.

The illusion of Pleasure
What we all want from life, one way or another, is pleasure. The big mistake is getting hooked on it. As much as we are drawn to it we must resist its pull.
We are all too comfortable in our lives. To live a healthy life we need some struggle and pain to push us forward. That's the way of being better.
The general rule I follow is the following – something which is pleasurable now is bad for you later. I may not like conditioning but I know it will make me a better athlete.

Natures balance
Nature is fundamentally built on balance. From the self-sustaining ecosystems to the placement of leaves on flowers. Everything is designed with balance in mind.
The balance applies to our lives as well. We must suffer to feel grateful for all the good moments in life. What are we going to be grateful for if we don't know the bad side of it? To be grateful for something we compare it with someone without it. Times when I gasp for air after hard training rounds makes me grateful for having air.

Go eat shit
Once you decide you want to develop gratitude through struggle pick your poison. Well for most people they already have something in mind. If that's you, congratulations! Most probably then not you won't know what to do. In that case, just pick the thing that you hate doing the most.
It is that simple. When you have free time away from that thing you will surely be grateful for not doing it anymore.

In a nutshell that's how you embrace struggle to find gratitude. You pick something that gives you meaning and which is hard and do it every day. Sure enough, you'll start being more grateful for those peaceful moments in the day. My recommendations is do something against your personality. Who knows, it might suit you well.