Creating a Sense of Gratitude in your Life. Every Day.

To start the year off right, try these simple practices to cultivate gratitude.  When you're feeling blue or frustrated, use them as tools to get you back to a positive head space.

Stop Complaining.  About people, situations and events that make you unhappy, sad or depressed. Nobody can make you unhappy.  No situation can make you sad or miserable unless you allow it to.

Commit To Your Goals.  When we look for positivity in the little things that make our lives worthwhile, we leave no room for negativity and our goals come to the forefront. Instead of recounting all events of the day, filter out only the positive ones and make a note of them. It could be anything trivial, from your bus arriving on time, your mom cooking a delicious breakfast, to remembering to pay the bills on time. You would not believe how this helps you achieve your goals — by clearing the mind.

Be Kind.  To yourself and others.  It's scientifically proven to make you feel good.  Helping someone selflessly releases serotonin in your brain and hence makes you feel good about yourself almost instantly. Try doing one act of kindness every day to flush out the toxins of depression from your system.

Practice Forgiveness.  Hatred is a negative feeling and harboring it will have nothing but negative effects on your well-being. Stop thinking about the hateful emotion/person and let it go. Remember to forgive yourself too.  

Release The Past.  When you find yourself thinking that the past looked so much better than the present and the future looks so frightening - Stop.  Remember that the present is all you have.  Be present in everything you do and enjoy life. After all life is a journey not a destination. Have a clear vision for the future, prepare yourself, but always be present in the now.

Be Optimistic.  Treat failure as an opportunity to learn a new and better lesson from life.  Never give up trying. Once you start harboring an optimistic attitude towards life, success will automatically follow.

Don't be Afraid to Dream.  Dreams motivate, inspire and expand our sense of self. They also make us happy because they give our lives a sense of purpose. Happy people usually love what they do, and if they don’t, they love who they are. Dreams remind us who we are.

Care For Your Body. Your physical condition has a direct connection with your well-being. A fit body and healthy mind is reflective of happiness. Start working towards the
health of your physical, mental and emotional energy by caring for your body.  Exercise and meditation help calm your nerves, soothe your mind and elevate your mood.

Give.  Cultivate a habit of sharing with others — your money, knowledge, service, wisdom, care, love.  Giving has many unexpected benefits from attracting more happiness into your life, to inspiring others, and changing the lives of those you touch. In the end the whole world is made into a better place. Ask, “how can I serve?” Pay it forward. Give freely.

By practicing these steps daily and being conscious of them, you will learn gratitude at a level you could never appreciate before. You’re made out of love, and there’s an opportunity at every corner to show it.  Excerpted from wake Up World

 

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.”  - Denis Waitley

Spreading the Spirit of Gratitude This Season

Gift-giving is a strong tradition in many cultures all over the world, but some gifts are best received from the inside-out; from a place where love and appreciation begins. Move through this season of thanks and giving with awareness, and not just going through the motions.  The best gifts aren't bought from a store, they come through spending quality time with the people you care about, or from gifts that come from the heart

Here are a few gifts of gratitude your friends and family will love:

Donate in Someone’s Name.  The perfect gift for the person who has everything: something for someone in need. Make a donation in a family member’s name this year, choosing a charity you think they would be passionate about. Maybe even suggest making charitable donations a new tradition.

Give the Gift of Time.  This can be as simple as an IOU for a task that you know needs doing.  

Make a homemade card or gift.  Taking the extra time to give something that's not "off the shelf" makes whatever you give so much more special.  Because these gifts can be quite cost effective, be extra generous and bestow your goodies on your hair stylist, babysitter, and landlord too.

Shop Local.  If making homemade gifts is too intimidating, bless local business owners.

Host a Party and Ask People to Pay “Cover”.  Time celebrating with family, friends and neighbors is what creates the best memories, and strengthens relationships. If you host a party, ask guests to bring cash for charity, or canned goods for the local food bank, as their “cover” for the night.
 

Volunteer.  Make volunteering a holiday tradition. Get some friends together and spend time with seniors, or in a local soup kitchen. If you have kids, get them involved, too. If you buy toys for a toy drive, bring them to the drop-off zone to help them understand the importance, and rewards, of generosity.  Excerpted from eHarmony

And for yourself, be thankful for those things that you may normally take for granted (and that some people are unable to experience) — the ability to breathe, to walk, to eat, to speak, to grow, to connect, to love, to live.

As the new year begins, remember to take the time to recognize and express your gratitude for important people in your life.  Whether it be in person or with a thank you note. 

Gratitude is a glue that binds people together. To give it is to receive it because to receive it you must first give it. This is a beautiful circle. When your friends and family engage with you in this flow of thanks, you’ll never again be alone and wanting for help.
 

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”    - G. K. Chesterton

 

A Thankful State of Being

When we are in the state of thankfulness, we are in a higher state of awareness.

Often when we practice being thankful, we go through the process of counting our blessings, acknowledging the wonderful people, things and places that make up our reality. While it is fine to be grateful for the good fortune we have accumulated, true thankfulness stems from a powerful comprehension of the gift of simply being alive, and when we feel it, we feel it regardless of our circumstances. In this deep state of gratitude, we recognize the purity of the experience of being, in and of itself, and our thankfulness is part and parcel of our awareness that we are one with this great mystery that is life.

It is difficult for most of us to access this level of consciousness as we are very caught up in the ups and downs of our individual experiences in the world. The thing to remember about the world, though, is that it ebbs and flows, expands and contracts, gives and takes, and is by its very nature somewhat unreliable. If we only feel gratitude when it serves our desires, this is not true thankfulness. No one is exempt from the twists and turns of fate, which may, at any time, take the possessions, situations, and people we love away from us. Ironically, it is sometimes this kind of loss that awakens us to a thankfulness that goes deeper than just being grateful when things go our way. Illness and near-miss accidents can also serve as wake-up calls to the deeper realization that we are truly lucky to be alive.

We do not have to wait to be shaken to experience this state of being truly thankful for our lives. Tuning in to our breath and making an effort to be fully present for a set period of time each day can do wonders for our ability to connect with true gratitude. We can also awaken ourselves with the intention to be more aware of the unconditional generosity of the life force that flows through us regardless of our circumstances.   Excerpted from the Daily Om  http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2010/26207.html

Gratitude isn’t something that we feel; it’s a something that I AM state of being. We can be disappointed that our desired outcome was elusive, or we can be grateful that we got the chance to try and learned some valuable lessons along the way. We can be angry that someone we trusted lied to us ,or we can be grateful that it didn't go on longer than it had to. We can be resentful of a lot of things and people that test our limits every day, or we can be grateful that they teach us more about ourselves. If you need another reason to give thanks at the dinner table on Thursday, how’s this: people who maintain an “attitude of gratitude” tend to be happier and healthier than those who don’t, according to a lengthy and instructive article in the Wall Street Journal.

The WSJ‘s Melinda Beck reports that adults who feel grateful have “more energy, more optimism, more social connections and more happiness than those who do not, according to studies conducted over the past decade. They’re also less likely to be depressed, envious, greedy or alcoholics.”

What the bulk of the research suggests is that gratitude should be chronic in order to make a lasting difference in well-being. Dr. Robert Emmons, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and a pioneer in gratitude research, told the WSJ that in order to reap all of its benefits, feeling gratitude must be ingrained into your personality, and you must frequently acknowledge and be thankful for the role other people play in your happiness: “The key is not to leave it on the Thanksgiving table,” he said.

This is a perfect time of year to teach our children about being thankful. The Thanksgiving holiday will be quickly followed by Christmas. Both holidays bring many opportunities to create new family traditions that will bring the real meaning of thankfulness and gratitude to a personal level for our children.

Helping our children recognize and show appreciation for things they have learned to take for granted can take some time. Kids are never too young to start learning how to see and show thanks for the good things in their lives. Although Thanksgiving, by its name alone, makes us think about giving thanks we should teach our children - by example - that being thankful and telling others how much they are appreciated should happen every day.

Even in the midst of extremely challenging circumstances, we can find something to be thankful for. In addition to helping us cope with challenges, this kind of grateful attitude can be contagious and is a wonderful life lesson to share with our children. Learning to be truly grateful can change your life. 

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was “Thank you”, that would suffice."  - Meister Eckhart

Give Thanks

"When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself."   - Tecumseh

 

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”  - Marcel Proust

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”   - Ralph Waldo Emerson

You Can Never Be Too Thankful

Thanksgiving offers the opportunity to do something we should really be doing every day of the year: Thinking about, and expressing, what we're grateful for. And really, there's a whole host of reasons why we should make gratitude a daily practice.

We all like being thanked. It's a great feeling when it's sincere, and not perfunctory. Being thanked and having reason to thank others are two sides of the same gratefulness coin. Both exemplify the positive in human behavior and provide us with a positive charge that boosts our emotional balance. People feel and express gratitude in multiple ways. They can apply it to the past (retrieving positive memories), the present (not taking good fortune for granted as it comes), and the future (maintaining a hopeful and optimistic attitude).

Regardless the "why", it's a quality that we all can, and should, cultivate.

Grateful people are more stress resistant. There are a number of studies showing that in the face of serious trauma, adversity, and suffering, if people have a grateful disposition, they’ll recover more quickly. Gratitude gives people a perspective from which they can interpret negative life events and help them guard against post-traumatic stress and lasting anxiety.

Gratitude makes us nicer. As a result, it helps us make more friends and deepen our existing relationships.

Gratitude allows us to celebrate the present. Gratitude actually magnifies positive emotions. Research on emotion shows that positive emotions fade quickly. Our emotional systems like newness. We adapt to positive life circumstances so that before too long, the new car, the new spouse, the new house, don’t feel so new and exciting anymore. But gratitude makes us appreciate the value of something, and this makes us less likely to take it for granted. As a result, gratitude allows us to participate more fully in life. We notice the positives more, and that magnifies the pleasures we get from life. Instead of adapting to goodness, we celebrate goodness. We spend so much time watching things - movies, computer screens, sports - but with gratitude we become greater participants in our lives as opposed to spectators.

Gratitude helps us come to terms with the past.  Our memories are not set in stone. There are dozens of ways our memories get changed over time – we remember things as being worse than they actually were, as being longer or shorter, people as being kinder or crueler, as being more or less interesting, and so on. Experiencing gratitude in the present makes us more likely to remember positive memories, and actually transforms some of our neutral or even negative memories into positive ones. In one study, putting people into a grateful mood helped them find closure of upsetting memories. During these experiences, participants were more likely to recall positive aspects of the memory than usual, and some of the negative and neutral aspects were transformed into positives.

Gratitude makes us less aggressive.  If you count your blessings, you're more likely to empathize with other people. In an article in Medical News Today, Professor Nathan DeWall is quoted as saying "I wanted to bust the myth that only certain people are grateful... Gratitude is an equal opportunity emotion that causes lower levels of aggression." An activity as basic as writing a letter or mentally counting your blessings can be enough to decrease aggression. "Take a step back, and look at what you've got," said DeWall. "Don't spend every waking moment being grateful, but one time a week definitely increases your well-being over time. And if you get bad news you're given a shot that protects you."

Gratitude lessens the desire for material satisfaction.  There’s nothing wrong with wanting more. The problem with materialism is that it makes us feel less competent, it reduces our ability to appreciate and enjoy the good in life, it generates negative emotions, and makes us more self-centered.

Gratitude can even help in the workplace.

Gratitude makes you a more effective manager. Effective management requires a toolbox of skills. Criticism comes all too easily to most, while the ability to feel gratitude and express praise is often lacking. Timely, sincere, specific, behavior focused praise to be highly motivating and is often a more powerful method of influencing change than criticism. Contrary to expectation, if praise is moderate and behavior focused, repeat expressions of gratitude will not lose their impact, and employee performance will increase.
 
And it's healthy too!  Gratitude increases sleep quality, reduces the time required to fall asleep, and can help with insomnia. The key is what’s on our minds as we’re trying to fall asleep. If it’s worries about the kids, or anxiety about work, the level of stress in our body will increase, reducing sleep quality, and keeping us awake. Gratitude can’t cure cancer (neither can positive-thinking), but it can strengthen your physiological functioning. Some recent science have shown that those who engage in gratitude practices have been shown to feel less pain, go to the doctor less often, have lower blood pressure, and be less likely to develop a mental disorder.


Try these 7 easy tips:

• Keep a daily gratitude journal.  It only takes 5 minutes a day.  Participants in studies who have done this have reported significant benefits after just ten weeks.
  What a deal to reap all these benefits!
• Overcome the obstacles. Two obstacles to being grateful are forgetfulness and lack of awareness. You can counter them by giving yourself visual cues that trigger thoughts of gratitude. Place Post-It notes where you'll see them as simple reminders.
• Vow Not to Complain. We are all guilty of complaining, and, quite frankly, it feels good, right? But our complaining creates negativity in our lives, which attracts even more negativity.  Psychologists say that it takes a minimum of 21 days to form a new habit. Again, it will take awareness to first recognize your bad habit.  But awareness is the first step. Can you stop complaining for 21 days?
• Find a grateful person and spend more time them. If we hang out with ungrateful people, their attitude tends to rub off on us. If you have a grateful people in your life, the influence will be in another direction.
• Think of every day as a gift.  When you awake, take a moment to reflect on all that you're grateful for - a warm bed, the birds singing outside, the ability to work, the hot cup of coffee that awaits you, the eager smile of your child, and the gift of being alive for another day. Starting the day in gratitude helps to affirm the abundance that surrounds us, and if we continually think about this abundance, we will attract even more of it and feel uplifted.
• Show and Speak Your Gratitude. Did you ever receive an unexpected note or letter where a person poured their heart out in thanks for something that you did for them? What a great feeling to be the recipient of such gratitude. There are so many opportunities in life where we can send a simple thank you note, which could make someone's day. Think about who you can say thank you to either in person or in a note. It can be for simple things, but it should be heartfelt.  Then do it!
• Return to simpler things.  Don't race through life as if it's a contest. In modern life, we're too often consumed by answering e-mails and cell phones. Slow down and be in the present. Think about some of the things you can do that make you happy such as swimming, hiking, bike riding, dancing all night long, cooking dinner for a friend, looking at the stars, sitting on the porch for hours in the summer, having a hearty laugh, or playing with your child. Take the time now to enjoy the simpler things!

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow." - Melody Beattie

Lessons from the Wild #3

This perfectly sums up what I feel after just returning from a week hiking in Yosemite National Park on the John Muir Trail -

"You didn't come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here."  - Alan Watts

Only one week, and I feel reborn, refreshed.  And, I feel a deep gratitude for those that fought the good fight, and still are, to protect and preserve our wild spaces.  This last was hit home strongly by a German friend who joined me on this trip.  This is a guy I'd met trekking in Nepal 7 years prior.  He's fortunate to be a tour guide and has spent a lot of time in majestic mountain landscapes all around the world.  After a brief trip here in 2009, he was eager to come back for more, and set his sights on a 4-week hike of the legendary John Muir Trail.  I joined him for the first few days and was inspired at seeing the California Sierras through his eyes.  One observation he made really struck me - that in the Alps, or Himalayas, or in most other mountain ranges, you generally begin in a town or village, hike up a mountain, then descend back to another town.  Not only that, but, particularly in the Alps, on many of the ridges you'll see gondolas, and lights, and roads snaking through all the valleys.  But here, in the California Sierras, you can look as far as the eye can see, and walk for a couple days (or more) in any direction, and still be in wilderness.  WOW!

And it's true.  As we sat in the evenings, watching the light fade from the sky and be replaced by countless stars, I realized that I couldn't even detect a dim glow of some distant town anywhere on the horizon.  Yes, this is rare I thought, and to the great credit of the founder's of our country's national park system.  And countless others who have fought for their continuing preservation, against great odds. David vs. Goliath type battles.

“Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed ... We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in.”   - Wallace Stegner, The Sound of Mountain Water

There are many organizations doing amazing work to protect and preserve these vitally important places for all to enjoy - wild animals included.  Start by checking these out and consider what you can do to help - sign a petition, donate, volunteer, spread the word.

National Parks Conservation Association
Friends of the Earth
The Wilderness Society
Save Our State Parks
The Sierra Club
The Nature Conservancy 
Campaign for America's Wilderness
California Wilderness Coalition
Earthjustice
Save the Redwoods League

I also highly recommend the Ken Burns documentary - The National Parks: America's Best Idea - that not only tells the amazing story of our parks foundings, but is beautiful nature porn too.  Most importantly, get out into the Wild!

“It had nothing to do with gear or footwear or the backpacking fads or philosophies of any particular era or even with getting from point A to point B. It had to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles with no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets. The experience was powerful and fundamental. It seemed to me that it had always felt like this to be a human in the wild, and as long as the wild existed it would always feel this way.”   - Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Thankfulness: A Love Story (Part 5)

And yes, you can be thankful, and content, and still have goals for bettering yourself and your life.  Being contented doesn't mean you're complacent.  Making yourself better is going to increase your attitude of gratitude.

Strive for your goals - and - continue to be grateful for what you already have.

I just finished another semester of continuing education courses.  Yet again, the experience was enriching in so many ways.  I truly believe that learning should be a life-long experience.  Wikipedia defines lifelong learning as the ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. Therefore, it not only enhances social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development, but also competitiveness and employability.    

The effects of lifelong learning as we get older offer even more benefits - whether it’s learning how to dance, speak a foreign language, write a newsletter, improve your golf swing, or repair your car - for adults 50-plus it:

• Keeps your mind sharp
• Improves memory
• Increases self-confidence
• Saves money as you learn to “do it yourself”
• Gives you a feeling of accomplishment
• Helps you meet people who share your interests
• Builds on skills you already have
• Gives you a new interest that you can share with family and friends   

  "You learn something every day if you pay attention."  - Ray LeBlond

And, during this holiday season, realize that family traditions also offer wonderful opportunities for learning.  Practices that incorporate expressing gratitude, journaling about our blessings, thoughtful gift giving (not blatant consumerism), and random acts of kindness.  These provide family members of all ages - young and old - a chance to learn from one another, and express their gratitude not only to each other, but to the wider community, and world.

I'm incredibly grateful for the countless opportunities to learn. There's still so much out there that I don't know. Lifelong learning truly is a gift.

"Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can and there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did."  - Sarah Caldwell
 

Thankfulness: A Love Story (Part 4)

Here are more  - and some surprising - things to be thankful for.

Second Chances - If you’ve ever forgiven or been forgiven, you know there’s nothing more encouraging, freeing and beautiful than second chances. It’s never too late to reconcile or redeem. 

Love - For letting you feel what it means to truly be alive.

Laughter - For its wonderful sound, and for helping you forget your worries, if even for a moment.

Life - For giving you the chance to experience all that you’re experiencing.

Travel - Be grateful for your freedom to explore, experience and learn from others on this diverse and fascinating planet. 

Food -  If you have food on your table, be thankful for it. Not everyone is as fortunate as you are. 

Tears – For helping you express your deepest emotions.

Fears – So you know your opportunities for growth. 

Heartbreaks - For helping you mature and become a better person.

Mistakes - Be thankful for the hard times, the mistakes, and the pain. They’ve made you stronger, smarter, and can reassure you that you’ll survive the next one too. 

Kind strangers – For brightening up your day when you least expect it.

You - For being who you are and touching the world with your presence.  Thank you!

And if none that that resonates with you, here's one final thought...

"If you haven’t all the things you want, 
be grateful for the things you don’t have 
that you wouldn’t want." - Unknown

Thankfulness: A Love Story (Part 3)

Not sure where to begin?  Start with the easy ones.

Your Health - Be thankful for what you have. 

Your Senses - They allow you to enjoy all the beautiful sights, sounds, tastes and smells of this world.  Your life experiencewould be dramatically reduced without them.

Your Family - This relationship is often complicated and challenging.  Good or bad, they helped make you into the person you are today.  Show your thanks.

Your Friends - In our modern world, this likely is your "real" family.  They're the ones that know you best of all and share in your laughter and tears.  Be sincere, dependable, and a good listener.

Your Enemies - For uncovering your faults, and opening your eyes to ways you can be a better person.

Your Teachers - Let them know that you appreciate their dedication and the knowledge they pass down to you.  Remember, they're not doing it for the money, they're doing it because they care.

Your Community - Be thankful for these people that brighten your day - the neighbors, barista, bus driver, whomever.   Smile, let them know you appreciate them, and wish them a nice day.

Your Freedom - America's not perfect, but it certainly does have it's perks (especially for women and minorities).  Don't take it for granted.  Be thankful for your democratic priviledges - vote and make your voice heard about issues that matter to you.

Nature - For all of its beauty, inspiration, and healing power.

Technology - For making the imposible, possible, and our lives easier (sometimes).

Your Job - Whether it's your dream job or just a paycheck, hopefully it gives you a means by which to add value to the world.

Your Mind - For the ability to think, create, and store memories.

"If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation,
you will discover that your life will
suddenly be filled with gratitude,
a feeling that nurtures the soul."
- Rabbi Harold Kushner
in the essay "God's Fingerprints on the Soul"

Thankfulness: A Love Story (Part 2)

grat·i·tude (n): the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful

After returning from a wonderful holiday getaway with friends - camping, feasting and hiking on the Central California coast - I want to revisit the topic of thankfulness and it's power.

People with a strong sense of gratitude, love and appreciation don't necessarily have more than others.  They aren't "luckier". They simply recognize and see more beauty in their lives.

Gratitude attracts what we want.  It's the universal law of attraction at work. When you're consciously aware of your blessings, and are grateful for them, you're focusing more clearly on what you do want in your life - and are attracting more of those things into your life.

Gratitude reduces negativity.  It's hard to be negative about your situation when you're thinking about things you're grateful for. One of the fastest ways to improve your mood is to count your blessings.

Gratitude improves problem solving skills. Too often we look at problem solving with a "something is wrong" mindset. Then, we have to put in effort to fix it. Conversely, when we think about what we're grateful for we open our minds to new possibilities. We also enter a problem solving situation with a perspective of improvement and opportunity rather than challenge.

Gratitude improves relationships. A little "thank you" goes a long way.  Make people feel special and appreciated.  Be grateful for people, their contributions, their talents and their actions.
  
Gratitude helps us learn. Behind every problem lies an opportunity. Being grateful for our situation - even if we don't like everything about it - allows us to be thankful for the opportunity to learn something new.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance,
chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast,
a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today,
and creates a vision for tomorrow."
- Melody Beattie,
Quoted in "Simple Abundance", by Sarah Ban Breathnach

Thankfulness: A Love Story (Part 1)

thank·ful (adjective):  feeling or expressing gratitude; appreciative.

I love this time of year.  Fall, especially in San Francisco, is typically fantastic.  The air is crisp, but warm; the subtlety of the season shows itself in the golden carpet of fallen leaves on the sidewalks;  and all those delicious root vegetables at the farmer's market...  don't get me started!  It's a time of year when I somehow naturally feel full of gratitude.  Though many share my sentiment, this time also brings stresses for some of the impending holiday shopping to be done, or loneliness.  

If you're in the second camp, here are a few things to consider -

How often do you pause to appreciate what you have in life?  In my own life, as I've seen more of the world, I've come to realize that many of the things I’ve been given are not rights, but privileges.  Like the ability to live in a country that's safe (considering how much of the world is in turmoil) and to gain an education.  Then there's the fact that I have a roof over my head, running water, eat several, balanced meals a day, and that I have all five senses to enjoy that with.  Sometimes it’s easy to feel down because you’re going through a tough time.  But remember, no matter how bad your situation may seem, there are millions of people that have it far worse off than you, and thousands of things to be grateful for.

"When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies with yourself." - Tecumseh, Shawnee Chief

Practicing thankfulness is one of the most powerful ways of thinking to bring about a change in our circumstances.  We often find ourselves struggling with thoughts of fear, worry, anger, frustration, anxiety, helplessness, self-doubt, depression and hopelessness. This kind of thinking has a major affect on our health and vitality, and does absolutely nothing to move us in a positive direction.  In fact, it make matters worse.  Thankfulness, on the other hand, is one of the quickest and most powerful ways to create a change in our circumstances and move us in a positive direction. 

Being thankful gives us access to our highest awareness and allows us  to see the myriad of possibilities, discover what we truly want, and realize a vision for the future.  Thankfulness also brings about a physical and mental transformation. We find ourselves smiling. Our spine straightens. Our muscles relax. Our creative juices begin to flow, and we get ideas on how to turn our situation around and move in a direction that inspires us.

"When I started counting my blessings,
my whole life turned around."
 - Willie Nelson