Fill Your Life with Gratitude and Appreciation!

It’s always around this time of the year when people start showing gratitude and appreciation to people in their life that have been influential.  Science is now showing that showing gratitude and appreciation on a regular basis leads to a happier life.  

Dr. Martin Seligman’s, sometimes called the founder father of Positive Psychology, research on happiness showed a strong link between expressions of gratitude and level of contentedness in daily life.  Positive Psychology is a field that refocused psychology from curing mental illness to promoting human flourishing.  This field examines healthy states of mind, such as happiness, strength of character, and optimism.  One experiment that Dr. Seligman, and colleagues, conducted asked people to write, and deliver, a letter of gratitude to someone that has been especially helping in their lives.  Those that completed this task showed the largest gains in happiness and reductions in depressive feelings.  

In a TEDtalk, Dr. Seligman defined what positive psychology is, or what it should be.  He stated that it should be as concerned with strength as it is with weakness; it should be as interested in building the best things in life, as well as repairing the worst; and it should be as concerned with making the lives of normal people fulfilling and with nurturing high talent as with healing psychology.  

With these findings, it is hard to turn away the idea that the more we express our gratitude and appreciation, the happier we will be.  Why not say thank you to that stranger holding open a door?  Why not tell your loved ones that you love them and appreciate them more than just once or twice a year?  Why not??

Who does it hurt when we build someone else up?  A favorite saying is that “we lose nothing by burning the candle at both ends.” In such an analogy, we only gain more light.  Why not continue to spread that light?  In a world full of hate, I encourage, and challenge you to express more gratitude and appreciation on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis.  Or, I at least want to challenge you to write that letter of gratitude.  You do not have to deliver it, or even tell the person that you wrote it, but I challenge you to write it.  

Who would my letter of gratitude be addressed to?

You didn’t think that I would ask you to do something, without first experiencing it for myself do you?  NEVER! I have thought about this for a long time.  Although there are two, maybe three people that have had the greatest impact on me, my number one person, is my biggest fan, my mother.  She has taught me how to love unconditionally, and how to have the biggest, most genuine heart there is.  (Sorry mom, get your kleenex out!)  She would do anything for anyone she cares about.  Without even thinking, if I needed something, she would drop what she was doing and come to my rescue.  

When I was first injured, she was right by my side every step of the way.  She was my support system, my biggest advocate, and, at the beginning of my new adventure at home, my nurse.  She put her life to the side to help me get mine back.  Words cannot express the gratitude and appreciation that I have for her.  I feel like I am constantly telling her thank you, but I do not think I can say it enough.  I really would not be who I am, or where I am today if it was not for her.  If I turn out to be half the mother she is to my kids (someday when I am fortunate enough to have one or two) then I will call that a success.

So now what?

I have found that when I am grateful for this life, my mood and my day does turn out to be better.  “Positive Mood. Positive Vibes. Positive Life.”  If we are able to be grateful and see the glass as half full, we can be more full of life.  I think with this type of mindset, we can start to shift from hating and pessimism to a world of love and hope.