December 2024

Being thankful

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This time of the year, with having just celebrated Thanksgiving in the USA, many families centered on the words "Being Thankful."
We celebrated the most wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.  
In addition,  I just spent the past week stating one thing a day that
Barney and Picasso are thankful for.
Anthropomorphically, I found this little project easy and fun to do.
​So, so much fun and so, so easy!!

​Why, then, when I'm put on the spot to express what I'm thankful for, for myself, do I find it hard to come up with any specific answer? It happens to me all of the time. I draw a blank. I just can't think of any one specific thing. Maybe because there are so many things that I'm thankful for that to me to focus on one thing is really hard  to do.. But, if someone asked me to tell them what bothers me or what's wrong, my answer is immediately on my tongue. What's wrong with me!? I know that I'm thankful for my family, my fur babies, my friends, my home, and on and on. But why do I sometimes center on the negatives and find it so hard to see the things that I'm thankful for. Does this happen to you to?

In all fairness to me, it's easy to see the negatives in our lives, we're barbered with them everyday. By now you all know me really well.  If I find something that intrigues me I begin with all kinds of research.  So, I began my investigation...
What I wanted to learn more about was how I can "be thankful" everyday at every moment. Is it an impossible attempt to achieve? What does it take to be thankful every minute of everyday?  I've learned that to be truly grateful for things takes some work. Sometimes it can require a lot of work when things are just not going well.

When I googled up "Being Thankful" I was brought to a page that had some tips on how to be thankful all of the time. It started out by saying, "Being thankful is feeling and expressing appreciation for the things and people in our lives. It can involve acknowledging the goodness in your life and recognizing that it comes from outside of you." The everyday occurrences affect the way we feel and the way we act. Of course, we can repress the way we are treated or the way we react to the negatives, however always looking at the negatives can and will make us sick emotionally and physically. 

So, what can we do to change the way we view things in our lives by using the "glass half full" theory?  Boy, oh, boy, I really learned some very valuable lessons...There are so many benefits to being thankful all of the time. 

Here they are: 

• Improved emotional health
  Gratitude can help you feel more positive, optimistic, and joyful. It can also help you feel less lonely and isolated. 
• Better relationships
  Gratitude can help you strengthen your relationships with others. 
• Improved health
  Gratitude can help improve your sleep patterns and strengthen your immune system.It can also help calm your nervous system, which can lower your blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing. 
• Helps you deal with adversity
  Gratitude can help you feel more satisfied with your life and less anxious. It can also help you shift your focus from what could go wrong to what is going right. 
  
  Here are some ways to practice gratitude:
  • Keep a gratitude journal.
  • Express gratitude to others.
  • Take the time to notice the good things in your life. ​

While Thanksgiving is a valuable time to begin to implement these lessons,
​I feel that it's so very important to try to think of one thing everyday of the year to be thankful for. I'm going to try.  Will you?

Happy Holidays!
Happy Tales to you,
​xoxo Yvonne