Living Life in the Key of “G”(Gratitude)
Thanksgiving is an often forgotten holiday. It’s stuck there between Halloween and Christmas. Nowadays, we find people decorating for these October and December festivals, but Thanksgiving seems only to be a time to complain about how busy airports and highways are the Wednesday prior and the Sunday thereafter.
However, studies show that being appreciative of the good things in life foster greater success in work, better health, peak performance in sports or business, a well-developed sense of well-being, and even help you recover faster from surgical procedures.
Appreciating or viewing things with gratitude, although it makes sense, isn’t simply blind optimism. Instead, view this as a practice of substitution. Instead of complaining of lack, allow ourselves to see opportunities and blessing.
True, pain, injustice and trauma exists in the world. But so do gifts of life and hope. Learning to appreciate things balances us and gives us confidence to move forward in our day.
We learn to be grateful for friends who listen, pets who comfort, fires that warm, breezes that cool, beautiful sunrises or sunsets, and even the gentle rain from a summer storm.
