"When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around."
― Willie Nelson
Like Christmas Eve, Thanksgiving morning has become a sacred time for me: a time of anticipation, reflection and peace. After I put the turkey in the oven at 5 a.m., my tradition is to handwrite a few thank-you notes to express gratitude to certain people in my life—different people each year. No matter how challenging the week, month or year has been, this practice always lifts me as it forces my focus away from myself and my problems or worries, and onto people who have enriched my life.
Gratitude also been found to improve relationships, and researchers learned that those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. As a bonus, they also exercised more and had fewer visits to physicians than those who focused on sources of aggravation. The benefits of gratitude can also carry into our work lives: Wharton School researchers discovered that managers who thank employees are likely to find their staff feels motivated to work harder.
As author Melody Beattie phrases it, “Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity ... it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
What are you grateful for?
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