Mechanics of Gratitude

I've been thinking about gratitude a lot lately, specifically the "mechanics" of gratitude.

Elder Kevin Pearson gave a Gen Conf talk in April 2009 that went into the "mechanics" of faith that I think can be applied to gratitude:

"Faith and fear cannot coexist. One gives way to the other. The simple fact is we all need to constantly build faith and overcome sources of destructive disbelief. The Savior’s teaching comparing faith to a grain of mustard seed recognizes this reality (see Matthew 13:31–32). Consider it this way: our net usable faith is what we have left to exercise after we subtract our sources of doubt and disbelief. You might ask yourself this question: 'Is my own net faith positive or negative?' If your faith exceeds your doubt and disbelief, the answer is likely positive. If you allow doubt and disbelief to control you, the answer might be negative."

I think we can do something with gratitude to understand the factors that affect and limit our gratitude. I think it can be expressed in terms of an equation, like Elder Pearson laid out.

Gr(x) <= Re(x) + H + Fa - Do - Di - J(x,y) - Ve(x)

- Gr(x): Gratitude about a particular blessing or aspect of our lives (x)
- Re(x): Our recognition of (x) as a blessing in our lives
- H: Our humility
- Fa: Our sources of faith
- Do: Doubt
- Di: Disbelief
- J(x,y): Jealously of how much others (y) have of something (x)
- Ve(x): Our vain expectations or entitlements about how much of (x) we deserve or should get

Basically, I believe our gratitude will never be greater than our recognition of our blessings plus our "Net usable faith" and our humility, minus those things which block gratitude (jealousy and entitlement).

So, if we're feeling that we need to be more grateful there are two ways to increase our gratitude - increase our recognition of our blessings and our capacity for humility and faith, and decrease those factors that degrade gratitude.