Gratitude
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Your harvest, your life
“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” ~Oprah Winfrey Late autumn inspires us to take stock of what we’ve planted or accomplished. The season of Thanksgiving — not just the holiday itself — underscores a simple choice we always have: We can celebrate all the good things we’ve reaped and experienced, or dwell on the difficulties we’ve encountered. A positive mindset is the natural outgrowth of appreciation. (Happy people are grateful people.) It’s part of the harvest we reap when we count everything on our gratitude list, large and small. ~CL
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Gratitude
“Of all the practices, I believe that learning to feel and express gratitude may be the most important in achieving and maintaining a happy life.” ~Andrew Weil, M.D. Are you counting your gifts, advantages, and blessings? Numerous studies show that keeping a gratitude journal on a daily basis will improve our life satisfaction within three weeks. You need only list a few items — and they don’t have to be major. Small pleasures add up to a big increase in contentment. Consider the taste of your morning brew, the fall colors on your morning walk, or the lovely handwritten note you received in yesterday’s mail. Record your gratitude list at…
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Another year
“Every birthday is a gift. Every day is a gift.” — Aretha Franklin As we age, our birthdays become even more precious. Birthdays invite us to reflect on our past, our blessings, and where we want to be in the future. And who doesn’t love an excuse to celebrate something? My husband jokingly refers to the month of August as my “birthday month” — truly an exaggeration. But yes, the first week in August is my birthday week, and I’m taking full advantage of the opportunities to celebrate. This week, I’ve enjoyed opening cards and gifts, having a birthday lunch with a couple of favorite friends, and a dinner with…
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Why helpers are luckier
“You can get everything in life you want — if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” ~Zig Ziglar The phrase “paying it forward” — helping others without expecting anything in return — is practically a cliche now. But there’s something to it. I’ve discovered over the years that whenever I do nice things for others (or help them out of a bind) my life magically improves, too. Helping other people adds to our own happiness, opens new doors, and even improves our health and wellbeing. In other words, generosity may look altruistic but it’s actually self-serving — in a good way. Life isn’t a competition.…
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Three’s a charm
“Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are: Something to do, something to love, and something to hope.” ~Joseph Addison, English poet and essayist There’s something to be said for “The Rule of Three” — a time-honored literary device. We’ve got those three blind mice, three musketeers, three spirits of Christmas, and three wise men, just for starters. And of course, in countless fairy tales, the protagonist is granted three wishes or given three tasks. Yesterday I posted a few thoughts on the benefits of Dr. Andrew Weil’s “Three Good Things” journaling exercise. Today, along these lines, 18th-century essayist Joseph Addison gives us “three grand essentials” for happiness. How…
