Gratitude is a powerful, positive emotion. My favorite part about Thanksgiving is that it is a day of gratitude! In fact, I call it Gratitude Day.
Gratitude feeds on itself. When we feel grateful, others often feel more grateful toward us. It lifts our mood and engages our spirit.
The past few weeks have been hard . . . it has been busy and I often find myself working alone. On my last day in one department and no one came to say goodbye, let alone to thank me for several months of very hard work and personal investment. People have, however, called to complain that I was not giving enough.
It does not feel right and has set a tone in my life for the past few weeks. I give so much, I feel so undervalued. What happened to Thanksgivings where coworkers shared the emotion of gratitude, I wondered?
Several friends have had significant health issues arise the last few months. I am grateful for the lessons they are teaching me about taking care of myself. I know I am headed the right direction - toward the positive and grateful people. I am grateful for the science of positive psychology providing my gut with such a great sense of direction. I know what is healthy!
Today, I made a choice to shift my brain into gratitude mode. I spent a few hours looking through favorite photos from the year and inserting a quote about gratitude from the book - Thanks: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier. I added an Enya tune.
It was amazing how using my creativity to capture my own strength of gratitude put life into perspective. I want to share that video with you - it has photos of family, pets and my community/region. I have watched it more than once now because the shift feels good. Thanks to youtube, I can watch it throughout the year when I need a little gratitude pick-me-up.
Here is the video - called Gratitude Day Reflections 2011: http://youtu.be/7-7IYGtCmA0