Tuesday’s Tip – Start a gratitude tradition this Thanksgiving

I love Christmas. I love Christmas songs, TV specials (especially the one with Heat Miser!), and the spiritual aspect of it, as well. What I don’t like about this holiday is what we have made out of it. I think I saw a Christmas tree in a warehouse club store in the first week of September. Besides the over-commercialization of the holiday, it made me realize that we seemed to have forgotten about Thanksgiving.

This Thursday, we have a chance to express our gratitude – and, we get to do with loved ones. So, if you’re reading this blog, you also have a chance to teach people about the science behind gratitude and its effect on happiness. Here are a couple of ideas to consider.

• Keep a gratitude journal: It is widely accepted that writing down Three Good Things and their causes every day leads to higher levels of happiness and less symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. But, what if you kept a family journal? Try going around the table this Thanksgiving and ask each person to tell what he/she is grateful for and jot it down in a journal. Keep the journal available for everyone and bring it out every Thanksgiving. You may also want to start this tradition every day at the dinner table…
• Teach the gift of gratitude: Pick a family member or friend that will be joining you for Thanksgiving and tell him or her about the things for which you are grateful. Then, tell him or her about the Three Good Things exercise. Teaching is a powerful tool and a wonderful gift.
• Read a gratitude letter: …to your entire family! If you have ever done this exercise where you read a letter to someone that you have not properly thanked, you know the power of gratitude in relationships. Now, try reading the letter to everyone who will be attending dinner. Tell them how you are thankful for something they did for you or something that you witnessed.
• Recall the bad: Everyone experiences adversity – some of us more than others. Dr. Robert Emmons (author of  Thanks! How the new science of gratitude can make you happier) writes that it is helpful to remember the ‘bad times.’ The first benefit is that this helps us recognize the ‘good’ in our current lives. The second benefit is that we can begin to practice counterfactual thinking – “mental comparisons we make between the way things are and how things might have been.” Counterfactual thinking can help us recognize just how much worse life could have been. Make it part of the conversation.

So, don’t be afraid to put off your Christmas shopping or watching the “The Year without a Santa Claus” for just a couple more days. Make gratitude a habit and don’t be afraid to share it with your loved ones.

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