Happy Thanksgiving!
It’s that time of year! Families gather around the table to devour a turkey and give thanks for all the blessings–food-related, family-related or just life-related–they’ve received. That’s right, it’s Thanksgiving 2021!
The main concept behind Thanksgiving is gratitude.
When the Pilgrims sat down to eat, they were thankful for having a harvest, they were thankful that the turkey had enough meat on its bones to cook and eat, and they were thankful for having saved enough food for the winter.
Of course, times have changed for the better when it comes to food security, with grocery stores going a long way to ensuring our survival. But everyone can still find reasons to be grateful.
More importantly, if you are more grateful, you tend to have a more positive approach to life.
In fact, according to a 2010 report titled “Why Gratitude Enhances Well-Being: What We Know, What We Need to Know” (by Robert A. Emmons and Anjali Mishra), “[gratitude] is foundational to well-being and mental health throughout the lifespan.”
In addition, according to a study conducted by Chih-Che Lin, titled “The Effect of Higher-Order Gratitude on Mental Well-Being: Beyond Personality and Unifactorial Gratitude,” facets of gratefulness that included thanking others, appreciating hardship and cherishing the moment made a significant contribution to psychological well-being. A 2019 study by that same author, titled “Gratitude, Positive Emotion, and Satisfaction with Life: A Test of Mediated Effect”, even showed that positive emotion and satisfaction with life are closely tied to gratitude.
In other words, gratitude is essential!
If science is telling us anything about gratitude, it’s telling us to not wait for Thanksgiving to express it. There’s something smart about practicing gratitude every day.
Gratitude is like an aspirin for mindset–it helps to fix your mindset for growth, and can help turn your headaches into happiness.
At this year’s Thanksgiving, I plan to ask each of my family members to share something they are grateful for. It is a good time of the year to remind ourselves how lucky we are.
So thank you for reading this! I’m thankful I have an opportunity to share these thoughts, and I hope your Thanksgiving is full of family-time and happiness–things we can all be grateful for!
Many doctors recommend taking aspirin every day for health benefits. Gratitude is like aspirin in that regard–a regular dose of aspirin is healthy, and a regular dose of gratitude is healthy. I hope you put gratitude into your life everyday and not just on Thanksgiving! It might do wonders for your happiness!
Keep living Bold!
Warmly,
P.S. Last year, I broke down how to utilize the Building Block Plan for achieving your goals, with the goal of orchestrating the perfect Turkey Day meal as an example. I hope everyone followed that plan-making guidance, but I understand that not everyone is amenable to planning their big dinner with such guarantees of success. The Building Block Plan-Thanksgiving model is a slightly different way to approach planning Thanksgiving, but a year later, it’s clearly not the preferred method in my household! LOL Anyways, I hope your meal is perfect in all ways.
P.P.S. PROJECT BOLD LIFE: The Proven Formula to Take on Challenges and Achieve Happiness and Success is a complete system for planning your life to get what you want, and has been a top seller in three categories: “Motivational Growth & Spirituality”, “Personal Success & Spirituality” and “Management Skills”. I hope you check it out if you have not purchased a copy.
