“Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot”
– Hausa Proverb
Aloha, Colleagues!
Thanksgiving can be a difficult time for many of us: Work and family conflicts, the 18-hours spent cooking a meal consumed in less than one, serious over-eating, competing commitments, you name it! Keeping our families safe during the pandemic can be difficult when loved-ones don’t fully appreciate the risk of holiday gatherings. The toughest part for me is that a single day can be designated as the time to be thankful. Seriously, even the dog-groomer is on-board with Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving! It’s a lovely sentiment, don’t get me wrong, but to be healthy, we need to cultivate gratitude on a daily basis.
Look at the research across professions: Every group demonstrates huge benefits of gratitude. Writing in Forbes in November 2013, a prominent leader in business, Erika Anderson describes how cultivating an attitude of gratitude makes people more successful. Positive Psychology, an online journal, recently published a review article in which Courntney Ackerman summarized 28 pieces of original research summarizing the benefits of feeling grateful. She categorizes them into five groups: emotional benefits, social benefits, personality benefits, career benefits, & health benefits!
Needless to say, this is an area we can all work on. There is a huge wealth of literature out there! Take a few minutes to review the links attached. You will be glad you did!
https://positivepsychology.com/neuroscience-of-gratitude/
https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-gratitude-research-questions/
Mahalo nui loa, for All You Do! I am grateful to you & for you!
Leslie