"Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day." Robert Caspar Lintner
As I've read around in the current trove of books on happiness research, one theme that pops up again and again is how happiness is tied to gratitude and thankfulness. People who focus on their blessings and feel grateful for them are happier than people who focus on what they can't have, don't have, or might have in the future.
It took quasi-scientific research to figure this out?
Let's take Lintner's wise insight as a challenge. What are you already doing or could you start doing to keep more of the Thanksgiving spirit of gratitude throughout the year?
After ruminanting on this for a while, I have decided to set a goal of acknowledging at least 5 blessings throughout each day. Not just sitting down at the end of the day to make a list, but to recognize the blessing at the time it is received and give thanks immediately. Thank you Susan, for the challenge!
ReplyDeleteLu C
How is it that Thanksgiving has become "Black Friday Eve" with its emphasis on shopping??? It's supposed to be a day set aside to reflect on all that God has provided in the past year, especially through difficult times--like the Pilgrims did (and they had it far more difficult overall.) I'm determined to keep working on a spirit of thankfulness every day.
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday our minister was talking about how the American people complain all the time about everything. He challenged us to take one day -- Thursday -- and don't complain. As an added incentive, the group we were with Thursday had a fancy "complaint jar" into which $1 was deposited whenever someone was caught complaining. The resulting "donations" would go to our church's food bank. -- There were $12 "contributed" that day. Was fun and amazing that we started thinking about what we were going to say rather than just complaining all the time. Why not do it more often than just one day?
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