Some of you may have already considered that giving thanks is not just for Thanksgiving, but it’s something we should try to do more than once a year.
- Start being grateful for what you have
- Thank other people more often, regardless of the holiday
- People who give thanks are both happier and healthier
Have you ever noticed how we give so much importance to only some days of the year? How we seem to appreciate our family only on Christmas or how it looks like we’re in love only on Valentine’s Day? The same goes for Thanksgiving. It seems like we are only giving thanks on this particular day. Passed mid-night? No more thanking for you.
If we are to consider the recent events of the world, we will realize that they are full of pain and sadness and anger and everything that’s bad in this world. And on the other hand, we’re here, living our lives, going to work, meeting with friends, having dinner with our family, planning how big a turkey we’ll buy for this holiday weekend. So, shouldn’t we be grateful? Shouldn’t we just say “thank you”?
According to psychologists, a person has both inherited traits and acquired traits that he or she develops throughout their lifetime. It appears that these traits can influence a person’s ability to be grateful. It works like this: if someone thinks that his or her accomplishments are the result of their traits and don’t recognize that others might have helped then gratitude will hardly creep into their minds and souls.
Professor Emmons, at the University of California, has even written a novel on gratitude and claims that people who are grateful are less likely to be envious or greedy. Besides, they also become more altruistic and more forgiving.
Although we tend to see gratitude as giving thanks in return for receiving something, it seems that gratitude can also be the process of focusing on life’s positive aspects. Therefore, you can be grateful every day for your life and everything that’s in it, regardless of how insignificant some things may seem to others.
Moreover, research shows that being grateful make you healthier. People who are consciously practicing thankfulness are less likely to get stressed or to suffer from depression and there is also an emerging technique called “gratitude therapy” that is used for therapy for people who suffer from stress or depression.
All in all, let’s take a moment every day and not just on Thanksgiving to be grateful for what we have and to give thanks to those around us.
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