We live in a world that measures almost everything — steps walked, calories consumed, money earned, followers gained. But the things that matter most — feeling seen, feeling grounded, feeling connected — remain unmeasured, unnamed, and often unnoticed.
Gratimo doesn't try to quantify emotions. But it does something radical: it makes emotional experiences visible through symbolism.
The Currency of Care
When you send a heart in Gratimo, it transforms into a coin. Not because gratitude has a price — but because value should be felt, not just thought.
Every coin represents a moment where you paused, recognized something good, and chose to acknowledge it. Purple coins from self-love. Green coins from appreciating others. Blue coins from noticing the world.
Over time, your collection of coins tells a story. Not a story of productivity or achievement — a story of attention. Where did you direct your care this week? This month?
Shopping for Feelings
The Gratimo shop is deliberately strange. You can't buy productivity tools or life hacks. Instead, you browse emotional objects — things like "The No-Context Pass" (permission to not explain yourself), "The Undo Button" (a reflection on regret), or "Borrowed Courage" (five minutes of guided strength).
These items don't solve problems. They name experiences. They make the invisible tangible. When someone browses the shop, what they're really doing is exploring their own inner landscape — recognizing feelings they didn't have words for.
This is the shop's real function: not consumption, but recognition.
An Economy of Abundance
Traditional economies are built on scarcity: limited supply, competing demand, zero-sum transactions. The emotional economy works differently.
When you send gratitude to someone in Gratimo, both of you gain value. The sender earns a coin. The recipient receives warmth and earns their own coin when they open the message. Nothing is lost. Nothing is transferred. Value is created, not redistributed.
This isn't just a design choice — it's a philosophical position. In the emotional economy, generosity doesn't deplete your account. It enriches it.
Making the Invisible Visible
The real purpose of Gratimo's economy isn't to gamify emotions. It's to give people a mirror.
When you look at your coin balance and see mostly purple, you notice: "I've been turning inward lately." When green dominates, you see connection. When blue is strong, you see grounding. These aren't judgments — they're observations.
For the first time, your emotional patterns become something you can see, reflect on, and gently adjust — not through willpower, but through play.
That's what an emotional economy really is: a way to make your inner life as visible, as real, and as valued as everything else you measure.