With Thanksgiving just a few days away, it’s natural for people’s thoughts to turn towards turkey, football, and the good and bad aspects of spending a whole day with their family.  And for a few moments they will think of the idea of “thanks-giving”, and they will spend time giving thanks.  It might be a short pause in their day, or maybe they’ll go around the table before dinner and share one thing for which they are grateful.

It’s powerful to express gratitude, but do we have to wait until the end of November to do it?  Do we need a national holiday to make ourselves stop and look at what is good in our lives?  I think every day should be Thanksgiving.  Here’s an excerpt from the Book of Habits  on how to make appreciation a part of your daily life:

“Our daily lives are filled with good and bad, happy and sad.  How can some people who have tons of challenges have a great deal of happiness, and those who have every advantage be miserable all the time?  Much of it has to do with what they focus on.  Since our minds can only focus on one thing at a time, gratitude is simply a deliberate choice to look at the positive instead of dwelling in the negative.  A gratitude list creates the habit of looking at the positive things in our life.  Get a notebook, a journal or a couple of sheets of paper.  Put it by your bed, right next to where you keep this book. 

Every night, before you go to bed, write down what you are grateful for.  This is your list, so there aren’t any wrong or right answers.  Just write at the top, “I am grateful for… and then list at least three things (there’s no upper limit).  They can be big or small, specific or general.  It can be that your husband did the dishes after dinner or that you are healthy.  It’s very important, however, that you write at least three.  Some days you’ll be able to write 20 right off the top of your head, and some days (you know the ones I’m talking about), it’s hard to get even the first one down.  Those rough days are when it’s especially important that you write down at least three.  What you are doing is a five-minute exercise on developing perspective.  You are teaching your conscious and unconscious minds to focus on things that are positive, instead of on what you lack in your life.  This is a crucial step to living in peace and happiness.”