Gratitude

Thanksgiving. It's a notoriously stressful time ,cooking and cleaning and preparing for family visits. Expectations, meaning, traditions all get set here and for some it is a time of joy and for others, dread. Regardless, as humans, we have a tendency to focus in on the bad, the things that don't go as planned, the stressors and lost moments. And all the research tells us that what we give focus, gains power. It becomes what we see, look for and confirm. We create mirror neurons - those reflections that we give off that come back to us from others. So, here is where gratitude comes in. When we go around the table to share what we are grateful for this year, instead of thinking "what a silly thanksgiving habit," perhaps we can shift our mindset to realizing that what we are doing is a brain shaping, reality producing exercise. To focus on the grateful, engenders gratefulness in others; it ripples out like the drop of water. We can exercise this gratitude muscle so that what we focus on is the positive meaning we create, and what comes back to us from others is that energy which we give power.

I am grateful for the time I get with my family, oh, and for ice cream.

What are you grateful for?