thankful – Personal Euphoria: Pilates & Fitness Classes in CT

Plank You!

Gratitude is important to our wellbeing all year, but this time of year we stop to consider and share the parts of our lives that makes us truly grateful. Recently I listened to a Super Soul Sunday where Oprah interviewed Brene Brown, a researcher on shame and courage.

Joy Needs Gratitude

In the interview Brown mentioned that everyone has thoughts that are killjoys. She used the example of looking at your children sleeping and being so in love and then envisioning a catastrophe that takes them away from you. I don’t have children, but I’ve had that thought process in a multitude of scenarios. (I’ve always presumed it is some mild OCD.) According to Brown people who lean into that negative thought are less happy than those who notice the thought, stop it, and instead recognize how grateful they are for the moment and what they have now.

Gratitude is truly imperative to our happiness.

Appreciate Movement

Ease of movement also boosts our happy meter. In a New Yorker article, “Can We Live Longer But Stay Younger,” by Adam Gopnick, he writes about having the opportunity to wear a suit that mimics […]

Once Grateful for Boys, Now Grateful for So Much More

One of the moments when I just couldn’t stop smiling.

Tomorrow at my family dinner we will go around the table and express our gratitude for something. I always cycle through the same three answers. I’m grateful that I can travel. I’m grateful for my health. And I’m grateful for my family and friends.

All true, but I thought it might be worthwhile to think outside the box and come up with something different this year. For help I grabbed a gratitude journal I started keeping in 1998. While my intentions are good now, and I mean to keep a gratitude journal, I tend to only use it a handful of times a year. But twenty years ago, I was reasonably consistent.

Here’s a sampling of things I appreciated in high school:

Words

Long Walks on Beautiful Days

Being able to Clock Distances in your Car

A Man Running Back and Forth between a Stop Sign and a Stop Ahead Sign

My Brother’s Huge Bear Hugs

Listening to Other People’s Memories from Before I was Alive

Seeing Nick S Because He is so Good Looking but I Have Never Talked to […]