Five Minutes of Bliss: Thanksgiving Edition - Give Gratitude and Gain Peace of Mind

Here's something you may not be aware of.  Gratitude expressed to others is something that is an important gift to yourself.  Put another way, giving thanks makes the heart of the giver feel happy and at ease.  Harnessing the power of this engine of good feeling is not difficult.  In just 5 minutes per day you can put the energy of gratefulness to work for you.

Source: Pitterle Postings 

How do you feel when you are grateful?  Happy, appreciative, satisfied, relaxed, excited?  Pretty good huh?  Sometimes you may also feel sad that you don't deserve something or overwhelmed by your good fortune.  Still, those are the kinds of "problems" a lot of us would like to be working on.  They are usually accompanied by a wistful sort of happiness.  An acceptance of our great luck.   A tempered joy.

There is imperical evidence that even just thinking about what you are glad to have in your life will make you happier and more comfortable. Developing this attitude of gratitude with proven techniques is not hard nor time consuming.  What follows is a clinically tested practice, that, if done regularly, leads to increased satisfaction with life.

  Here's how:

Spend 5 minutes each day thinking of  3 things that transpired in the last 24 hours for which you are grateful.  If you can identify a person to thank, send them a text, call and leave a nice message, make a note to thank them next time you see them or express your gratitude in some other way.  Expressing your gratefulness makes the feeling more concrete.  Completing the circuit in this way turbo-charges the positive energy.


Source:  Better Homes and Gardens Ecard

Doing this regularly will develop the pathways in your brain that go to the place of recognizing your good fortune, your connections to others and your general happiness.  It might start on Thanksgiving Day but if you keep it up throughout the year, next Thanksgiving you will be thankful for a generally improved attitude and deeper connections to the people who support your growth and happiness.

When you do this and have some positive experiences to share or any questions, I'd love to hear about it.

Thank you to the people who have sent me nice comments throughout the years on my email writings and then these blogs.  The positive feedback has made this work very gratifying, fun to do and encouraged me to continue.  Thanks to everyone who has become a follower.  This public display of support is a clear indication that these writings are reaching people and important in somebodies life.  Finally, thanks to everyone who has given me their attention here in the last few years.  I'm glad you've taken the time to check out what I'm offering.  Every visit makes creating this blog more worthwhile for me.

Source:  Ray Greenberg