How to Feel Grateful – Grateful-ish, the Gratitude Book | Laurel Robbins
The Gratitude Book For People Who Are Fine

Nothing’s wrong. So why doesn’t it feel like anything?

The job is fine. The relationships are fine. You hit the goals you set. And still, on an ordinary Tuesday, there’s that low hum of nothing much. Grateful-ish is the science-backed, cliche-free guide to how to feel grateful when your life looks good and still feels flat.

Get Grateful-ish on Amazon →
Kindle and paperback  ·  72 pages  ·  about a 90-minute read
4.8 ★Average Amazon rating
72Pages, no padding
9 secondsThe habit at the centre of it
Grateful-ish gratitude book by Laurel Robbins on a Kindle
Sound Familiar?

You’re not ungrateful. You’re just not noticing.

You can list the good things. You know you’re lucky. You’d feel ridiculous complaining out loud.

And yet a whole good day goes past without landing. You get to Thursday and can’t account for Tuesday. Someone asks how you are and you say fine, busy, and both halves are true and neither one is interesting.

You’re not broken, and you’re not ungrateful. You’re running a brain that was built to scan for what’s wrong and chase what’s next.

Woman feeling meh on her lunch break holding the Grateful-ish gratitude book on a Kindle
Why This Happens

Your brain wasn’t built for a Tuesday.

Every ancestor you have ever had survived by noticing the snake, not the sunset. That wiring got passed down. To you. In an office. On a Tuesday.

Grateful-ish explains the mechanics in plain language, with real named research. Once you can see why your brain skips the good, you stop taking it personally.

What’s Inside

What this gratitude book will actually teach you

  • Why your brain is wired to miss the good stuff, and why that isn’t your fault
  • How to stop missing your life while you wait for the “big” moments to arrive
  • Why more money, more wins and more milestones keep failing to fix the feeling
  • How to feel closer to the people you love but have stopped really seeing
  • What to do with the quiet 2am wait, is this it? that ambushes good lives
  • How awe, a surprising and science-backed shortcut to gratitude, quietly answers that question
  • A gratitude journaling method that works, plus a nine-second habit that makes the good stuff stick

Seven short chapters. No filler. Most people finish it in one evening.

The Idea At The Centre Of It

Frequency beats intensity.

A handful of incredible days a year does less for you than a steady stream of small, ordinary good moments you actually notice.

Notice one, and the next one is easier to spot. That compounds, and your baseline moves. Not just your mood on the good days.

The Shortcut

Most of life is switchbacks, not the summit

There’s a quiet question that ambushes good lives around 2am: wait, is this it?

Life gets a lot more enjoyable when you learn to enjoy the switchbacks, not just the summit. Grateful-ish shows you how, and why awe is the fastest way there.

Hiker reading Grateful-ish on a mountain summit, awe as a shortcut back to gratitude
Man reading the Grateful-ish gratitude book on a park bench beside his bike
Set Expectations

If you’ve bounced off gratitude advice before, here’s why this one is different.

What it isn’t

  • A 5am morning routine
  • Toxic positivity
  • Pretending a bad meeting was secretly a gift
  • A streak you’ll feel guilty about breaking
  • Preachy, or written from a mountaintop

What it is

  • Real, named research, plainly explained
  • Funny in places, honest throughout
  • Stories about monkeys, mountains, a coffee mug and some wild goats
  • A method specific enough to actually use
  • Short. Deliberately.
What Readers Say

4.8 stars on Amazon

★★★★★ 4.8 from 11 ratings on Amazon, across three countries

The rare gratitude book that doesn’t make you roll your eyes. Sharp, honest, and quietly life-changing.

Marisa T., beta reader

No-nonsense approach to the topic, with many interesting scientific facts in a concise form. Recommended to anyone allergic to sugar-coating but interested in a grounded perspective.

Stefano, Amazon review

It’s funny, easy to read, and never gets overly inspirational or preachy. It reminded me that gratitude doesn’t have to mean walking around feeling thankful for everything.

ScottO, Amazon review

This book isn’t just the typical pep talk but deeply connected to the author’s own journey, observations, and research.

Everfumed, Amazon review

Enough science behind the ideas to keep the message from drifting into inspirational wallpaper. The nine-second habit and more realistic approach to gratitude journaling also sound genuinely usable.

UniCorn23, Amazon review

The author makes it practical without being preachy. This book was quite different from what I expected, in a good way.

David W, Amazon review
Also A Good Gift

For the person who has everything and still feels blah

The over-achiever. The “I’m fine” friend. The partner who could use a nudge to enjoy it while it’s happening.

Short enough that they’ll actually read it. Dry enough that it won’t feel like a diagnosis. Also a good book club pick.

Get the Book →
Book club of women discussing the Grateful-ish gratitude book
Laurel Robbins, author of the gratitude book Grateful-ish, on a mountain
Who Wrote It

Hi, I’m Laurel.

I’m a Canadian entrepreneur who studied primatology, lives in Europe, and has spent over 20 years figuring out why a good life can still feel flat. I founded Monkeys and Mountains, one of Europe’s leading hiking tour companies, which grew out of an adventure travel blog.

This book started on day four of the Tour du Mont Blanc, when I realised I had stopped looking at the mountains and was only looking at my watch. I was in one of the most beautiful places on earth, on a trip I had wanted for years, and I was checking my split times.

So I read the actual research on why that happens, then spent a long time testing what to do about it on ordinary weeks at home. Grateful-ish is what came out of that. It’s the book I wanted on the trail.

More about Laurel →
Questions

Everything you’re wondering

Grateful-ish is a short gratitude book by Laurel Robbins for people whose life is fine on paper but still feels flat. It explains why the human brain is built to miss ordinary good moments, then gives you a specific, doable way to start noticing them. 72 pages, science-backed, and deliberately free of 5am routines and toxic positivity. Get Grateful-ish on Amazon →
Grateful-ish is for anyone who keeps feeling meh even though nothing is actually wrong. The job is fine, the relationships are fine, you hit the goals, and it still does not land. It is especially useful if you have tried gratitude journals or happiness advice before and quietly abandoned them by day four.
No. Grateful-ish is a secular, research-based gratitude book. The explanations come from psychology and evolutionary biology, with the researchers named so you can go and read them yourself. There is no prayer, no manifesting and no woo.
Grateful-ish is 72 pages, about a 90-minute read. It is available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback. Current prices are shown on the Amazon listing.
Most people quit gratitude journals around day four, usually because listing three nice things starts to feel like unpaid admin. The method in Grateful-ish is built around that exact failure point: shorter, more specific, and with no streaks to break and feel bad about. There is also a free Grateful-ish Starter Kit with a print-and-fill tracker if you want the method on paper first.
Because a good life you do not notice feels roughly the same as a mediocre one. Gratitude is not about upgrading your circumstances, it is about closing the gap between how good your life actually is and how much of it reaches you. Closing that gap is what Grateful-ish teaches.
No, and it does not claim to. Grateful-ish is written for the specific experience of feeling flat when nothing in particular is wrong, and it will never tell you that a hard thing is secretly a gift. If you are dealing with grief, burnout or depression, please talk to someone qualified.
Yes. The Grateful-ish app is an AI gratitude journal that coaches you on specificity as you write, spots patterns you would miss on your own, and has a help-me-right-now mode. It is a paid subscription with a 7-day free trial. The book teaches the method, the app is for practising it daily.
Laurel is happy to answer questions about the book. Get in touch →
Other Ways In

Start free, or go deeper

The Grateful-ish Starter Kit FREE

A printable PDF with the five-category specificity method, real filled-in examples, and a seven-day print-and-fill tracker. The method from the book, on one page, for nothing.

Get the free Starter Kit →

The Grateful-ish app PAID

An AI gratitude journal that coaches you toward specificity while you write, spots patterns you’d miss, and reminds you without guilt-tripping you about streaks. Subscription, with a 7-day free trial.

See the app →
One Ordinary Tuesday

You were never going to feel ecstatic all the time. Nobody is.

But grateful-ish, on an ordinary Tuesday? That one’s actually available.

Get Grateful-ish on Amazon →
Kindle and paperback  ·  72 pages  ·  4.8 ★ on Amazon

Or start with the free Starter Kit →