Have a Gratitude Ritual?

I've been reading Sarah Wilson's new book 'First, We make the Beast Beautiful' and I'm up to the section of her book where she writes about gratitude rituals.

I thought this was kind of synchy (sinky?-) in more ways than one having already written a post about just that -
Washing Up is Good for You?

Sarah writes in 'First, We make the Beast Beautiful'  -
"I do have a gratitude ritual inspired by the time I shared a glass of tap water with personal developmental/self-help guru Dr. John Demartini, he of 'The Secret' fame.
I share it here because, like meditation, it's a daily practice that has had exponential impact on my anxiety.
To be honest, it is a form of meditation."
Sarah goes on to write in the book as to just what her gratitude ritual is, and it's not washing the dishes by the way.
And then she writes -
"Alex Korb writes in 'The Grateful Brain', 'Gratitude can have such a powerful impact on your life because it engages your brain in a virtuous cycle.
Your brain only has so much power to focus its attention.
It cannot easily focus on both positive and negative stimuli.'    
Literally, you can't be grateful and anxious at the same time.
Once again, the threat system in our amygdala is overridden.
On top of this research shows gratitude stimulates the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that regulates anxiety.
Korb adds that the brain loves to fall for the confirmation bias - it looks for things that prove what it already believes to be true.
'So, once you start seeing things to be grateful for, your brain starts looking for more things to be grateful for.'    
And thusly we build all kinds of right muscles." ... mussels, 

No, this is not me, I'm way muscler:-)

Mussels?

... octopuses/pi or whatever;-)

I bought that 'no fishing' octopus above from the pet food isle in my local supermarket years ago and now it rests above my kitchen sink along with a shark that came with a Steve Irwin scuba doll (the Steve doll I gave away) and a 'Finding Nemo' figure set (to help me to remember to forget:-).

Sarah's book doesn't stay by the sink though.

And Sarah did tell me that the octopus on the cover of her book will become apparent as I read on.
I have a few guesses as to what it may represent, but I haven't read far enough yet to know.
I really only bought the book because of the octopus on the front cover reminded me of the one I have near my kitchen sink ... and of me having read all of Lovecraft's stories in the book pictured further up in this post.  
I'm intrigued as to what the octopus in Sarah's book represents, so I'll just have to keep swimming I guess ... I mean reading;-)

From Matt Haig's book 'Notes on a Nervous Planet'

Who needs a bigger boat?-)

And mind those sharks.

The Big Ideas: 'Anxiety- is it Just Me?'
talk at the BWF

Big Ideas: Anxiety- is it Just Me?