Recipients: How to Receive an Appreciation
Gratitude is the secret sauce for happiness. For you, for your community, for the world.
Most people are uncomfortable receiving genuine appreciation. We see it in our campaigns: some of our Recipients say it takes them a week to even open their Notes, it’s too vulnerable. It’s hard to accept there’s something good about us, that people love us.
Receiving appreciations is the practice of “gratitude exchange,” when someone tells you how grateful they are for you, and you in turn feel grateful for them. When your Appreciation Notes start coming in, here’s what to do:
When you see the Note in your inbox, take a moment to think about that person and your relationship with them. They took time out of their time to think of you and write something meaningful. How delightful! Enjoy the anticipation of what they might have written.
Read the Note and take a breath. Appreciate what they wrote and that they wrote. Whatever they had written, elegantly or inelegantly, long or short, they genuinely care about and feel grateful for you. You created that gratitude! Amazing. Breathe THAT in.
At this point, you might feel resistance to what they said. But could what they wrote be true? Make a hand gesture to bring it in. Yes, bring that message in! As you take an in-breath, make a hand gesture of touching your heart. Experience gratitude for and connection from what they have said.
Try those three steps and see how you feel. Appreciate means “to increase.” Increase the good truth about yourself and the connection you feel with your Note Writer. They care about you and want you to know that. And that’s something to be grateful for.
Benefits of the Gratitude
There are so many studies of what gratitude does. When you receive gratitude, it increases (i.e. appreciates) all these things for you, for your Note Writer and for everyone around you:
Strengthens relationships
Improves physical health
Improves psychological health
Improves sleep better
Improves self-esteem and resilience
Fully letting appreciation in is sometimes hard, and it’s a practice. And lucky you, you’ve got a string of appreciations coming. We are excited for you to receive these Notes and truly let them in.