What If Every Day Was Thanksgiving?

Blog Post by Melissa Platt, Esq.

I love to watch the TV show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” For those of you not familiar with the show, the premise is to select a family who has suffered extreme hardship and whose home is literally falling apart around them, and while the show sends the family on vacation for a week, the makeover team demolishes the old house and builds the family a brand new home. Aside from the fact that it’s a lot of fun to see the “beyond-your-wildest-dreams” homes they create in a week, I like to watch the show because I always walk away from it with an intense feeling of gratitude. Gratitude for my health, my family, my home, my life.
 

What amazes me even more, though, is that most of the families who are chosen for the show are not focused on how awful their lives are but are actually grateful…grateful to have a husband, even if it means he’s in a wheelchair and the medical bills are piling up…grateful to be alive, even if it means being admitted to the hospital for regular blood transfusions…grateful to have the 4 additional children they’ve adopted and taken into their 700 square foot dilapidated home. In fact, many of these people are serving others and trying to give back to their community, even amidst the extreme trials they are experiencing.

What this says to me is that happiness really has nothing to do with external circumstances. Happiness is a state of mind, and cultivating an attitude of gratitude can increase your level of happiness. The reality that happiness is a choice reminds me of one of my favorite movies, “Pollyanna.” Whenever Pollyanna is presented with a less than ideal situation, she plays what she calls the “Glad Game,” which is essentially looking for the good in every situation. For example, when as a poor minister’s daughter, Pollyanna hoped to receive a secondhand doll in the missionary barrels but through some mix up received a pair of crutches instead, she played the Glad Game and was glad that she didn’t have to use the crutches.

Her attitude on life eventually infects the whole town and turns an unhappy town into one they actually re-name “The Glad Town.”

In recent years, scientists have begun examining the link between gratitude and health and happiness. One study found that “the practice of gratitude can increase happiness levels by around 25%.” In the Research Project on Gratitude and Thanksgiving, over a hundred people were randomly assigned to 3 different groups and required to keep a journal. Group A had to write about things they felt grateful for. Group B was required to write about things they found annoying or irritating. Group C wrote about things that had had a major impact on them.

The results of this study indicated that daily gratitude exercises resulted in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, optimism and energy. In addition, the gratitude group experienced less depression and stress and made more progress toward personal goals. The findings also showed that “cultivating gratitude brings other health effects, such as longer and better quality sleep time” as well as exercising more regularly and reporting fewer physical symptoms, such as pain. The researchers also noted that people who feel grateful are also more likely to feel loved and that gratitude encouraged a positive cycle of reciprocal kindness among people since one act of gratitude encourages another.

The great news is that cultivating gratitude is not hard to do! You can almost instantly increase your wealth, health, and happiness by keeping a gratitude journal. The Thanksgiving Project research indicated that writing down the things you feel grateful for four times a week for as little as three weeks can create an effect that lasts six months or more.

I performed my own gratitude experiment a couple of months ago. For several weeks, I made a conscious effort to focus on what I was grateful for instead of all the things I felt were lacking in my life. Even though my temporal circumstances did not change at all, I noticed that I felt wealthier, healthier, and happier when I was focused on what I do have as opposed to what I don’t have. Happiness can be very elusive when we think it is always just around the corner…when I get that raise, when I lose that weight, when I move into that new house, when I retire. The trick is to be grateful for where you are now.

At this time of year, when it is traditional to give thanks, we at Platt Law wish to express our gratitude for the great blessing it is to associate and work with people like you. May the gratitude you feel this season and all year round bring increased wealth, health, and happiness for you and your loved ones!