3 Years Later

3 years and almost 3 months without a daily written gratitude journal and it still feels like it's the first day of the rest of my life. Gratitude is magic and I am in control.


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Doggy Gratitude

Why do dogs wag their tails? According to the awesome Spott's Canine Miscellany, a pawrody by Mike Darton, the reason is as follows:

“ Dogs wag their tails to communicate. When they're alone, they do not wag their tails no matter how they are feeling. So the wagging of a tail is the delivering of information, and it is certainly not the simple radiating of enjoyment that many people suppose it to be. Very often, in the presence of a human, a wagging tail is a conscious expression of gratitude - for attention, for food, for an anticipated pleasure. ”

As if I needed another reason to love dogs! And who do you think we have to thank for me coming across this awesome piece of info? It's the fabulous Ellinelle who sent me this lovely book as a gift a while back. I have the most amazing blogger friends!

The image is a cool 'Dog Gratitude' card from maggiesstationery.com

What a Year of Gratitude Did to Me: Pt. 4

Continuing with the bigger-than-expected list of things my thanksgiving year changed in me, I'm here to share 7 more of the personal wonders:

1. It made me realize the true value of family. I guess I haven't quite been taught it as a kid as it took gratitude to open my eyes and make me see family ties in a different light. I understand now that even if we don't always get along I can still count on them should anything happen. And even though I like to depend on myself when it comes to most things in life, I must admit it is a very comforting feeling to know that someone has your back.
2. Now, in going through an uneasy situation, I look for the signs of healing in my behavior and way of thinking instead of focusing on the negative aspects of such situation and making it worse by not being of much help to myself.
3. I don’t seem to be wishing for tragic endings to fiction books I read any more. This is amusing, but somehow I used to resent the idea of a happy ending, because one always seemed unrealistic to me. It sounded fake, too sweet and made no sense. I liked the characters flawed and broken and I needed the plot to be heart-wrenching and almost unbearable. Having recently read a new novel, I realized I actually wished everything in the storyline was going to end just fine. Maybe the change is because I’m finally ready to allow no more drama in my personal life and thus I can accept a happy ending in a book where tragedy isn’t necessary to get a point across. I guess I don't need reassurance in my misery and unhappiness since those two no longer tell the story of my life.
4. In being so appreciative of all the good and bad times in my life, I really don’t feel this common 'feeling' of time running out or flying or otherwise being on the verge of disappearance. Everything seems to follow its own very right pace to me.
5. When I'm not in love with some person I still feel like I'm in love with the whole world.
6. When I was a teen I thought happiness was being understood by those you cared about the most, now I realize happiness is just as much about really understanding oneself first.
7. I can go to bed and look forward to each new day, because regardless of what it brings, I know I'll be just fine. Tomorrow is a new day and there will be a new thing to be thankful for, and if there won't be a new thing to be thankful for, there would still be all the old things left. And if I lose those things tomorrow, there would still be my life and past to be thankful for... And if I die tomorrow, things just wouldn't matter, but while I'm here I can always find something to be thankful for.

That's all for now, but who knows, I might as well come back with more some time soon!

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What a Year of Gratitude Did to Me: Pt. 3

I was right to assume the things I've already noticed changing in me as a result of my thanksgiving year were not all of the changes that took place. I keep noticing more! So in addition to the things I've mentioned in my 1st post on the subject and then in my 2d post and to a few more facts I included in my first guest post for ThankfulFor, there are these fantastic things:

1. This one might sound weird, but I can now watch movies alone like it’s nothing. I used to have a problem with that and only did so if I was dying to see a movie and couldn’t find a movie watching partner at that very time. Somehow it just didn't feel right being one on one with the movie world. Now I feel totally comfortable in my own skin, no matter what I do.
2. The year made me realize I really appreciated the idea of sunsets but also made me see that I'd never once watched one. So this was what I knew I had to do, and at the first opportunity I went ahead and watched the sun both set and rise. That even included me having to wake up super early on my first vacation in a while.
3. At some point, I even felt like decorating my Xmas tree. It happened for the first time in a very very long time in 2009, only a little over 3 months into my thanksgiving year. I have a picture proof.
4. The year helped me realize what some of my true passions were. And that's how my involvement with the Chair Blog happened.
5. I had never really imagined my future in realistic ways before. Like, I could dream anything in my mind but when it came to planning or setting achievable goals for the nearest future – I never did that. Mostly because I wasn’t sure my future existed and was scared of it.
6. It's now so much easier for me to let go of old unnecessary and useless things and photos. Being thankful for the 'mental' memories instead of physical confirmation I preserve them in my mind even better it seems. If I do forget some memory, it only means it never mattered as much as I thought. It's like I give things a chance to prove their worthiness to me and make room for new moments to savor.
7. In addition to not noticing 'bad' weather any more, I've noticed I even get somewhat of a 'spiritual' and extra lift from the fact that said 'bad' weather doesn't bring me down any more. Way to go about using the positive outlook to the max, eh?..

And believe it or not, I'm not done with listing all the wonders! Will continue the list in one of my next posts. In the meantime, I invite you to read my newest guest post (on fun reasons why 'thank yous' are so worth a try) for the ThankfulFor blog HERE, and you are more than welcomed to join The 'Thank You' Project's giveaway HERE!


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Scientific Facts Behind the Feeling of Gratitude

"Grateful people report higher levels of positive emotions, life satisfaction, vitality, optimism and lower levels of depression and stress. The disposition toward gratitude appears to enhance pleasant feeling states more than it diminishes unpleasant emotions. Grateful people do not deny or ignore the negative aspects of life." - Robert A. Emmons and Michael E. McCullough

Robert A. Emmons is a leading researcher in the field of psychology of gratitude, professor at UC-Davis and author of four books on the subject. Together with Michael E. McCullough they have conducted a number of experimental studies in the field, here's a summary of their findings:

1)  In an experimental comparison, those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events (Emmons & McCullough, 2003);

2) Participants who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic, interpersonal and health-based) over a two-month period compared to subjects in the other experimental conditions;

3) A daily self-guided gratitude exercises with young adults resulted in higher reported levels of the positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy compared to a focus on hassles or a downward social comparison (ways in which participants thought they were better off than others);

4) Participants in the daily gratitude condition were more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or having offered emotional support to another;

5) In a sample of adults with neuromuscular disease, a 21-day gratitude intervention resulted in greater amounts of high energy positive moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others, more optimistic ratings of one’s life, and better sleep duration and sleep quality, relative to a control group;

6) Children who practice grateful thinking have more positive attitudes toward school and their families (Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008).

I've seen my share of amazing things happening to me after my year of thanksgiving was done, and there were so much more to it than just the above. Any of you who have tried to practice gratitude too seen any of the aforementioned benefits or more? Please do share!


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What a Year of Gratitude Did to Me: Raw Facts, Pt. 2

As if the 6 amazing things my 365 thanks did to me and which I've already mentioned in the What a Year of Gratitude Did to Me, Pt. 1 post were not enough, here's the follow up to it with some more positive changes I observed happening in me over the course of a year:

1. It introduced me to my true and better self by showing me what some of my true values were - you can't possibly feel thankful for something often if you're not sincerely interested in it. 
2. By making me see just exactly why I appreciated the people in my life it showed me who my true friends were and it made me a better friend to them. 
3. I’m no longer worried about hearing “no”, because for every little “no” I hear I know I'll get so many exciting “yes’es”. It's like it gave me wings, this kind of a confidence boost, freedom to fly I was looking for elsewhere but have found within.
4. It made me stop noticing 'bad' weather by making me see the beauty in everything around me. You can now easily spot me walking through cold rain, strong wind or heavy snow conditions smiling, and this just doesn't sound like a portrait of me from a little over a year ago.

Talk about amazing transformations and the power of gratitude! Makes me wonder if these are all the changes that took place or if there's something else I didn't remember to include... 

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What a Year of Gratitude Did to Me: Raw Facts, Pt. 1





There are enough of skeptics out there, and even though I've completed my '365 Thanks' self-challenge 3 months ago I am still asked what it gave me and whether it was worth it at all. Instead of rolling my eyes at what seemed so obvious to me, I decided to calm down, sit down and make a list of things that I observed changing in me. Below are the facts, part 1 of raw facts, for all of the wandering souls out there who doubt the worthiness of my thankful efforts. So, let's see:

1. I don’t really get upset that much any more.
2. I feel much more comfortable when it comes to making distant future plans.
3. I’ve became a much more cheerful person and this is something other people actually now notice about me. Just recently someone told me the first thing they noticed about me and would never forget was my broad smile upon saying hello to them... I would never forget them saying it either, because this might as well be the first time someone told me something like that. And I honestly believe such thing would have never be applied to me if it wasn’t for my year of gratitude that did this magic to me.
4. I get up in the morning and I look forward to every day. This hadn't quite happened since I was a child, so definately feels positively new. I think it’s because I now know that no matter what the day ahead holds for me, I will be able to remain positive through whatever.
5. Not only my year of gratitude showed me what my true passions were, it totally showed me all the ways I could try to pursue my hopes and dreams. How is that not good?
6. My thankful project linked me to some truly amazing people I would have never known or talked to otherwise. And I am definately thankful to have all of you here - you are now a huge part of my mental re-birth, if I can put it this way!

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