Here is a list that will guide you through your journey of adapting an attitude of gratitude and help you to create lasting happiness throughout this holiday season: • Retrain Your Brain. While your brain receives more than 11 million bits of information per second, it can process only about 40. Therefore, it takes practice to scan for the positive while screening out the negative. If you keep at it, you can turn your brain into an optimism machine, even if you’re grouchy by nature. It doesn’t matter what you’re grateful for. What matters is that you are training your brain to view the world differently. • Pass It along. Gratitude has a ripple effect. That means parents can pass it along to their children. It is recommended to hold a daily family gratitude circle in which every member of the family describes three things they are grateful for that day. • Email Your Thanks. Once a day, take two minutes and write an email to someone expressing your gratitude for something he or she did. You’ll be surprised how good this simple act will make you feel. It’s also a great way to foster a stronger social network. • Bless Your Stress. Find something positive to focus on in the face of adversity. As a University of Connecticut study found, a grateful heart is a healthier heart. In this investigation, patients who viewed their first heart attack as a blessing in disguise for giving them a new appreciation for life were less likely to have a second attack than those who blamed their heart troubles on others.
Gratitude
The month of November is the perfect opportunity to express gratitude and spread thanks among friends, family, and those who are in need of it. I would personally like to thank all of my supporters who have helped me get to where I am today.