Tap Into the Healing Power of Gratitude

My family wasn't really big into praying when I was growing up. So as some kind of gesture to teach us kids that the holiday wasn't just about food and football someone - probably Mom - came up with the tradition of each person saying what he or she is thankful for.

Did I hear some sympathic groans? Perhaps you ran a similar gauntlet to access to the turkey and gravy.

For most of my life, I did not appreciate the concept of gratitude. Thankfully, I eventually have come to understand it.

A Facebook friend of mine, Elizabeth, has been posting something she's grateful for every day in November.

"I saw somebody else doing it. I just liked the idea - a way to kind of reinforce every day what's good," she told me when I asked her about it yesterday.

At first, she thought it might be hard to come up with something to be grateful for every, single day. 

Instead, she found she easily could list 10 or 12 things. "As soon as you get yourself into that mindset of looking for things to be thankful for, they are everywhere!" she said.

A cardinal at the bird feeder, a cashier who is pleasant despite long lines of shoppers, a driver who waits to let her into traffic: these are the kinds of things Elizabeth has taken note of every day this month.

"It kind of changes your perspective," she said.

I have friends who call that an "attitude of gratitude" - the practice of noting and articulating little blessings throughout the day as a vehicle to joy. 

It changes you.

The world around me didn't change, but when I began to notice the nice, beautiful, kind things that happen to me, instead of focusing on the inconvenient, stressful or bothersome things, my perspective began to shift. 

I went from expecting that my world will treat me royally every day, and being disappointed when it doesn't, to being happy, appreciative, in a word, grateful, for the good things in my life. 

Being a little compulsive, I actually write a gratitude list at the end of the day. Most nights I fall asleep feeling I had a good day and life is good.

Another friend whose birthday is this month said recently that as a child she believed God gave her a birthday present every year, but she had to look for it.  She said she's never had a birthday where she did not find some gift from God.

So don't limit the restorative power of gratitude to Thanksgiving. Don't wait for your birthday. Cultivate an attitude of gratitude every day. It's (almost) sweeter than pumpkin pie!