Thankfulness

I’m not much of a Reader’s Digest reader, but when I’m at the shore house without my usual reading material, I’ll pick up whatever’s available. And this article surprised me: How The New Science of Thank You Can Change Your Life. It was written by Deborah Norville & published in the October 2007 issue. (Yes, it was still on the coffee table this August!) You can read the entire article here.

Norville suggests that being consciously grateful each day had several benefits on the majority of participants in a recent study. They were generally:
• More optimistic
• More energetic
• More enthusiastic
• More determined
• More interested
• More joyful
• More likely to exercise
• More likely to have helped someone else
They also:
• Felt better about their lives
• Had fewer illnesses, and
• Got more sleep

Norville believes that we can all reap these benefits by simply taking the time to keep a gratitude journal. She suggests writing down three things every day for which you are thankful and then writing about why they made you feel grateful. Seems pretty simple. I might have to give it a try.