Gratitude has been a trend for years—mantras, journals, daily social media reminders. But for me, it’s never quite stuck. Not because I’m ungrateful—far from it. It’s just that the idea of performing gratitude like a ritual feels…off. There’s a subtle, almost invisible pressure that comes with the “practice of gratitude.” If you’re not sharing it every day, somehow it suggests you don’t appreciate what you have. It’s an unspoken layer of guilt. And I’ve realized that guilt is