Practicing Gratitude

THE POWER OF GRATITUDE 

Recently, I received a powerful email in my inbox. It was an invitation to attend a lecture by Sean Foy, an internationally renowned authority on fitness, weight management and healthy living.

According to the invitation, new research suggests that developing the skill of gratitude can have a profound effect on our happiness, health, relationships, success and ultimately our life.

I attended the session, and walked away with so many tips, ideas, and actionable ideas for practicing and celebrating gratitude. Over the next few days, I’m going to share a few inspirational tips, ideas and thoughts with you. I hope these tips will inspire you to incorporate gratitude into your life.  If ever there was a time to incorporate gratitude in your life, it’s now, November, the season of thanksgiving.

I love that our company is so committed to holistic wellness that they sponsored a session on gratitude for the employees. The session was based in the latest scientific research, and cited studies from the Universities of California Berkeley and Davis that support the impact that gratitude can have on your life.

While the session contained so much useful content, one of the most impressive and striking things that I took away from the session is that gratitude is a practice.

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Practicing gratitude requires a purposeful action.

When I come home at night, I’m tired, often stressed and doing everything I can to be engaging and present for my family. I love them, but sometimes I’m just tired.

One of my favorite tips from Sean, was the creation of a gratitude jar.

You will need:

1. You will need a glass jar with a lid
2. Strips of paper
3. A pen

How to use your gratitude jar:

1. Ask each person to write down one thing that they’re grateful for at dinner each night
2. At the end of the week, pull the statements from the jar and read them aloud

Reading the statements of gratitude aloud at the end of the week can be powerful. Hearing your statements and those of others is meaningful. Let’s face it: some days, it’s a struggle to pin-point one thing to be grateful for. Other days, it’s a breeze. Regardless of what you and your family members write each day, the simple act of capturing things that you’re grateful for brings a positive, hopeful energy to your relationship and it reminds all gathered that there’s always something to be grateful for.

As we enter this season of thanksgiving, I would encourage you to make a gratitude jar to share with your family. The simple act of identifying one thing that you’re grateful for and sharing it with others is a good reminder that each of us has the power to pause, and take purposeful action to bring abundance into our lives and count our blessings.