My First Post!: Gratitude

Happy Tuesday and thanks for visiting!  This is my first post, but will not be my last.  I have been wanting to get this started for a while and I'm excited that I finally did!  I have been discovering a lot recently about myself through my upcoming wedding and my rewarding job and feel as though I would be doing you all a disservice to not share :)  My biggest focus through my hectic life recently has been to stay true to myself, discover new things, appreciate more, and complain less.  I recently read an article that was about just that and wanted to share a bit of it:

This is was adapted from Robert Emmons, author of Thanks!  How Gratitude Can Make You Happier; The Psychology of Gratitude; Words of Gratitude for Mind, Body, and Soul; and The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns.  It was published in our local paper.

10 Grateful Steps to Happiness
1.  Keep a daily gratitude journal.  Take time each day to be present and recognize your blessings.
2.  Remember the bad to give mental comparison of how bad it was before and how much better it is now.
3.  Write a gratitude letter.  Think of someone who had a positive effect on your life but you haven't thanked properly.  Read the letter to them in person or over the phone.
4.  Pray, meditate or use other daily rituals to give thanks.
5.  Use your senses-use vision, touch, taste, hearing, and smell, even intuition-all the ways that allow you to experience life and be thankful for them.
6.  Use reminders-keep pleasing pictures, affirmations, a gratitude charm/key chain or other object in your pocket, purse or desk.
7.  Vow to practice gratitude on a more regular basis.  Make a commitment to appreciate your life.
8.  Pay attention to thoughts and self-talk.  Changing negative or derogatory thought patterns can dramatically affect moods.
9.  Fake it first.  Feelings follow words and actions, act grateful to become more grateful.
10.  Find unusual ways to be grateful.  Be grateful to your enemies that may be the stimulus to create a desired change in you.  Or thankful for the crisis that helped build stronger family bonds.

Great message, huh.  Be grateful.  Take time out of your day to appreciate what you have, or what you don't have.  Not grateful?  Pretend.  Give thanks through prayer.  Don't pray?  Meditate.  Don't meditate?  Try.  Changing your thinking just a little bit can make a big difference.  Today I will work to be more grateful.  Join me?