Thankfullness

   Good Morning, Friends! It's the day after Thanksgiving, and I am hoping you all got the chance to eat delicious food among family and friends. And if you, like me, were so busy yesterday that you didn't get the chance to truly take time to appreciate it all, maybe take the time this morning to think back over all you have been blessed with and express your gratitude. 

  You see, gratitude isn't a once a year thing reserved for Thanksgiving day. It's a practice that will truly change our lives inside and out if we let it. Learning to live with gratitude means finding the good in every situation. It's expressing joy over what you do have, rather than being ruled by remorse for all you don't have. It's the seed of opportunity in each obstacle. It's a mindset shift that will transform our perspectives and eventually our outcomes if we take the time to put in into practice. 

  Here's what I mean. When you begin the habit of gratitude, like any other new habit, you will probably have to remind yourself to do it on a daily basis. It may even feel forced at times. But as you sit down and write down and speak out the things you are grateful for, you will begin to retrain your brain to actively look for things to be grateful for. When your brain is actively looking for good things, it tends to see, recognize, and thus celebrate the good things more often, which leads to you feeling more positive and uplifted more often. 

  This positive mood and energy will allow you to pursue more of the things you love and care about and attract people to you who have similar mindsets, thus giving you more in your life to be grateful for. Essentially, the habit of gratitude genuinely put into practice on a regular basis has the ability to cause you to feel more joyful, and actually receive more into your life to be grateful for. It's an upward spiral which can transform your life in any area. 

  Let me give you an example. Let's say you decide to practice gratitude in the area of your relationship to your spouse. You start actively looking for things they say, do, or are which you can be grateful for. As you do this, you notice more and more positive things about your spouse, which makes you feel more drawn to them, and causes you to act with more affection toward them. Your rekindled affection toward your spouse causes them to respond in kind, thus making your relationship better and giving you even more to be thankful for. 

  This positive spiral can work in any area of our lives, but we have to start with genuine gratitude for what we do have. As we practice appreciating all the good we have been blessed with, we will notice more good things, make more positive choices, and attract even more to be thankful for. Get out a notebook and start writing down what you're thankful for today. Apply gratitude to your life, and see just how much you truly do have to appreciate. I can't wait to see you succeed!

~K.L.W.