From Daily Vows

In an interview Brother David Steindl-Rast was asked 

What are simple practices that readers can take away to cultivate gratitude?

Within the phrase “stop, look, go,” many find difficulty in the stop because we live in a very fast society. People get carried away and get ahead of themselves, so we need reminders to stop. One has to find out for oneself the best ways, but often in the beginning, something new is good. For instance, when you get into the car you can train yourself for one second or a fraction of a second to wait before turning the key in the ignition. That’s the stop. Then we look for the opportunity to be grateful. We have the gift of the car, something to get around in. Then we go—we go and take advantage of the gift, which can be a joyful ride.

Or in the morning before opening our eyes, we can train ourselves for one split second to stop and keep our eyes closed. Before opening them we can look for gratitude such as “I have eyes and I can look.” I read somewhere that there are 42 million blind people, and many of them are children. Their blindness is mostly due to hunger. Anything we can do to reinvent ourselves to pause even for the slightest moment. We used to have prayers before meals, so even if we just put our hands together and bowed before digging in. This will make meals much more enjoyable. Anything we take for granted is lost to our experience. Anything we do mindfully can give joy.

From The Gospel of Gratitude According to Brother David Steindl-Rast