Here we are, the weekend after Thanksgiving. The leftovers have been eaten, Black Friday has passed and we are ready to resume our normal activities this week.

But just as working out one day a year won't keep you physically fit, being thankful one day a year won't give you lasting benefits. Continuing to practice gratitude even after Thanksgiving has passed is a tool that you can use all year long to become healthier and happier.

"When we develop a sense of appreciation for those around us and cultivate a sense of gratitude for life itself, we are relieved of the burden that comes with seeing ourselves as victims," writes Greg Krech in Gratitude, Grace and the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection.

 

Krech calls this state of appreciation "grace," a term used in many religions. However, grace as a practice is not a belief as much as a shift in thinking. Or as Krech puts it: "It's the difference between seeing life as an entitlement and seeing it as a gift."

 

In whatever manner it is practiced, gratitude isn't a blindly optimistic approach in which the bad things in life are whitewashed or ignored. It's more a matter of where we put our focus and attention. Yes, pain and injustice and cruelty exist in this world. But when we focus on the gifts of life, we gain a feeling of well-being. We often feel more energized to reach out and help others; we feel we have some power to positively affect our world. This again leads to a feeling of well-being...and gratitude. It's a self-sustaining cycle!

 

In their book Seasons of Grace: The Life-Giving Practice of Gratitude, authors Alan Jones and John O'Neil write that practicing gratitude can be as simple as writing a thank you note, working in the garden, walking on the beach aware of nature's gifts or telling someone you love what you appreciate about him/her. According to them, it's even more than what you do, it's the attitude with which you do it.

One of the best ways to cultivate gratitude is to establish a daily practice in which you remind yourself of the gifts and good things you enjoy.

Each morning or evening for the next two weeks, set aside five minutes and think back over the previous 24 hours. In your journal or on your computer, write down up to five things that you appreciate or are grateful for. Your entries can be things that made you laugh, feelings of accomplishment at home or work, strengthened connections with family and friends or a glimmer of hope for the future.

Then spend a few minutes thinking about why each of those things happened or what you had to do with it. Writing down the reasons you came up with can make the exercise even more powerful.

Although the activity of writing down the "good things" may seem simple or even hokey, over a decade of empirical studies has proven the profound effects it has on the way our brains are wired. By forcing our brain to scan the last 24 hours for potential positives, we become more skilled at noticing possibilities for personal and professional growth and seizing opportunities to act on them. And since we can only focus on so much at once, there is no room for those small annoyances and frustrations that typically drain our energy.

 

Here are some additional resources to get you started learning to live from gratitude:

Take a gratitude quiz and test your current gratitude level. (You can do this again after you have been following your daily gratitude practice for a few weeks to see if your gratitude has increased.)

Watch this one minute video about giving gratitude to our men and women in the service (have a tissue handy).

Do this short meditation on gratitude with Deepak Chopra.