Ich bitte zu entschuldigen, dass ich hier auf englisch kommentiere. Es ist die überarbeitete Kopie eines Eintrags auf facebook, den ich heute verfasst habe.

Gratefulness! I found a refererence to this TED-talk today. It means re-inforcement. I have heard about those results before. A long time ago already. This is quite understandable as in the talk there are also some sources. The investigations about happiness have had results already many years ago. At some time I must have read some of them. And I have read about the recipe to become happy and I was following it for a while in a slightly modified form. Each day I wrote down three items about which I was happy and grateful - and one negative item which might have been avoided. Or not. That was not so important. Important was the fact that there was a ratio 3:1. THREE positive effects versus just one negative. From my experience I can say: "it works". I could correct it and say: "it worked for me." And of course, I am extremely lucky because I experience happiness every day when I practice piano. And since I practice more conciously today than years ago, the source of happiness is practically infinite.

A few days ago I experienced another source of happiness. A professional musician (a Russian composer) commented as follows:

"Ihr Borodin hat mir wirklich sehr gut gefallen! Vom Anfang bis zum Ende. Gute Atmung, Gestaltung und ein sinnvoller Klang. So was hätte ich gerne von professionellen Klavierspieler hören, die meistens diese Eigenschaften nicht haben. Es hat mich sehr gefreut, wie Sie diese Suite gespielt haben!"

Here is the link for those who might be interested: