Thanksgiving is one month from today, on Nov. 26.
It’s a holiday when lots of people spend at least a little time giving thanks, though in my experience that often means generalized pre-meal prayers like “We’re grateful for family, friends, our health, this food. Please pass the stuffing and turn up the Lions game.”
I’d like to do better than that.
Inspired by some wonderful blogs projects I’ve seen recently — notably the Love List and 29 Days of Giving — I issue a call to arms: let’s spend the next month focusing on all the reasons we have to be grateful. Instead of giving lip service to it, let’s spend a Month of Thanksgiving reminding ourselves and others of our good fortune.
Each day I will blog about what I’m doing to be more grateful. I invite you to join me, and to share your thoughts, observations, suggestions and ideas.
Why should you do this?
There’s a self-help adage that says what you focus on expands. You’ve seen it in action if you’ve ever worried some small detail until it became an irrationally large part of your waking thought. Now we’re going to do it in reverse and focus on the good.
Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, a professor who many consider to be a leading authority on the “science” of gratitude, has summarized what he considers the most significant findings of a project that he and Michael McCullough of the University of Miami conducted with a grant from the John Templeton Foundation”:
•In one experiment, adults who kept “gratitude journals” on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to adults in two other groups.
•Participants who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic, interpersonal and health based) over a two-month period, while self-guided exercises in gratitude with young adults resulted in higher levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy.
•Grateful individuals place less importance on material goods, are less likely to judge their own and others success in terms of possessions accumulated, and are more likely to share their possessions with others.
If you want to read more about Emmons, click here.
Are you ready to spend a month being grateful?