The Thanksgiving holiday is coming up despite all the focus on travel, turkeys and football, Thanksgiving obviously is about giving thanks. Gratitude is a contagious emotion and one I recommend you catch.
Has anyone ever sent to a “Thank You” card and you felt so good about receiving it that you wanted to send them one back? A “Thank You” card for a “Thank You” card!
Have you ever noticed that the people who talk a lot about what they are grateful for in their life usually have a lot to be grateful for? I don’t believe that is a coincidence.
I can’t tell you that this is an absolute truth (a Truth with a capital “T”) in life, but I do have enough life experience and clinical experience to know that whatever you focus on and fuel with emotion, you get more of in life.
So continually focus on the positive and don’t dwell on the negative in your life. Making it a practice to live with an “attitude of gratitude” is a learned behavior and if you don’t have it now, here is a great way to get into it:
Start each morning by making a Gratitude List. Write down 25 things you are grateful for right now (you can use the Gratitude List Worksheet) and don’t stop to you’ve filled the whole list out.
Take notice and start simply with the small things around you right now: Be grateful for your eyes to see, for breath to breathe, for your heart that is beating, for your fingers that can type and write and hold a loved one’s hand, for your brain that can think beautiful thoughts, for clothes that protect you and that look so good on you, for slippers that keep your feet warm, for a roof over your head, for the loved ones in your life, for your job or other financial means to thrive, for all the cool gadgets in your home that make life so much easier for you, for the thing going on in your professional life that is so exciting right now, and for the view outside your window. Or you might be grateful for a new relationship in your life, for reconnecting with an old friend, for the memories you have from your most recent vacation or for the opportunity to travel somewhere exciting in the near future.
No matter what your current circumstances might be, you ALWAYS have something to be grateful for. Even if you’ve received a horrible diagnosis, your lungs are still breathing air, your heart is still pumping your blood, your brain is still thinking thoughts and your body still has the innate ability to heal.
Keep your daily lists in once place, maybe in a Gratitude Journal, and review them from time to time. You’ll find it interesting to see how your Gratitude Lists evolve and how much more comes into your life.
I choose to believe that the more you show gratitude in your life, the more your life will give you to be grateful for and this cycle goes on and on. You too can choose to look at what you have, what you are doing and who you are, and be grateful for it all.
There are so many other ways too you can make Gratitude a game in your life. What’s one way you can help yourself get into that “attitude of gratitude”?
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