Gratitude is one of the most powerful tools we can use for building happiness into our lives.

Expressing gratitude helps us savor those positive experiences.  It bolsters self-worth/self-esteem. It helps us cope with stress and trauma, and works well as  emotional first-aid. It keeps pleasures and blessings fresh in our hearts and minds, and it helps cancel adaptation, so that we don’t fall into the joy-killing habit of taking things for granted. 

To count and celebrate blessings may seem like a bit of old-fashioned advice.  You might think it would be boring or wasted effort. It may not feel authentic (at first) or be hard to do in difficult moments.  But the effort is never a waste, and it may be the most real and important thing we can do to get through dark times. 

This practice does surprisingly more for us than we imagine. It increases our joy, encourages moral behavior, helps build social bonds, inhibits comparison to others and it’s incompatible with negatives. It’s nearly impossible to focus on anger, bitterness, pain or greed, while identifying our blessings.  It’s a mental discipline that’s worth celebrating for all of its many benefits!

1 Thessalonians 5:18

‘… in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you’.

2 Corinthians 4:15

‘For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God’.

Let’s take a fresh look at methods, and check a few ‘How-to’ suggestions:

1. Say a quick prayer of thanks … Every good and perfect gift (thought or circumstance) comes from the King of Heaven. Thanks is due, and it’s good too for us to be reminded that the giver loves us.  We are never alone.
2. Start a Gratitude Journal. Once a week write three-to-five things you are thankful for. When you regularly seek the ‘good stuff’ in your week – you will see the big and obvious things, and begin to recognize more of the small, hidden gems too. Don’t journal too often in the week, or make it too long. If it’s too labor intensive it may become a duty – instead of a celebration. IF you begin a journal entry on a day when you can’t think of any blessings that have come into your life – try flipping your view and look for some negatives that you managed to avoid. Even in hard times, we can find something that could have been worse.  And if we escaped the worst … well, that’s a blessing! This kind of ‘forced focus’ is healing.  Writing helps us to clarify and remember both types of blessing.  It also creates a written evidence log that can encourage us in future moments as we review it.
3. Make contact: Say thank you to people directly, by card, phone, e-mail, etc.. It may or may not be thanks for a specific favor or help – maybe you’re just thankful that person is in your life (perhaps they just made your day with a smile or by showing up personally, or in your thoughts somehow). Even writing a thank you note to someone that you can’t deliver it to can boost your own happiness.
4. Gain a fresh view: Introduce someone else to the people, places and things you love. Sharing your enjoyment – and seeing things through the eyes of someone new to the view – will increase and amplify your own joy and appreciation.
5. Keep your method fresh.  Write it, sing it, tell someone else about it – draw pictures, employ a puppet, use a special calendar, or use adult coloring books, dress up (fancy or funny), or try dancing as you meditate on gratitude. Don’t worry, no one will be watching. Try focusing on varied subjects (relationships, work, home, nature, physical comforts or abilities etc.).  You might pick one subject per week, or try other ideas.
6. Mix your methods. Don’t let this become a dry duty – it’s meant as a celebration. Please share … we all get a boost from shared joy and appreciation.  It lights us up – and we all need more light. 

You can’t see through this text – but I’m doing my own happy dance as I think about and appreciate you.  I have longed for comments and more interaction with readers – which is rare and beautiful when it comes. I’m encouraged and so thankful (once again) that we can reach out.  We need each other.  

Blessings, Love and Laughter to you,

Margaret