Change Your Life With One Simple Act

Thanksgiving is our yearly reminder to give thanks.

Expressing gratitude on a consistent basis throughout the year can literally change your life.

Karen Cassiday, PhD and ADAA Past President writes this of gratitude:

“Thanksgiving is an annual reminder to give thanks for our freedoms, but cultivating gratitude is so much more than an annual time to share a large meal and give thanks. It is much deeper than trying to feel good in the moment. Research on gratitude shows that it is an ability to perceive the undeserved blessing of the moment. Gratitude means learning a humble recognition that everything about your life is a blessing while recognizing that you did nothing to deserve the blessing. Gratitude is the opposite of entitlement. Entitlement is the belief that good things should come to you. When you are grateful you understand that being human entails suffering and you therefore appreciate any moment of beauty, joy, or compassion. Radical gratitude means that you can experience gratitude even in your worst moments of pain.”

Richard Rohr, offers this reflection in his book, A Spring within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations. All the truly great persons I have ever met are characterized by what I would call radical humility and gratitude. They are deeply convinced that they are drawing from another source; they are instruments. Their genius is not their own; it is borrowed. We are moons, not suns, except in our ability to pass on the light.
 
Looking for creative ways to express gratitude? Check out Lifehack’s top 40, and have a Happy Thanksgiving.