November.....Parties & Thankfulness
November the month of THANKFULNESS and the BIG Trinity Party
Well November seems like the month when we should focus on gratitude. When I look at pictures of my sun damaged self before discovering Trinity Aesthetics & Laser and their innovative skin treatments and magic potions, I am most certainly thankful! Yikes, I looked 10 years older 10 years ago! Not only that but I even feel younger now.... and that my friends I am clear has a lot to do with gratitude.
Phsycologists have scientifically proven that one of the greatest contributing factors to happiness is gratitude. In fact "Soul Pancake" did an experiment where they took people off the street and measured their level of happiness with a very long questionnaire. Then they asked them to close their eyes and think of the person in their life who had been the most inspirational / influential and why. Next they had the volunteers write down what they had just been thinking. Once this was done they put the volunteers on the spot by asking them to call that person and read the essay to them. Most of the volunteers were a bit apprehensive about this as often we don’t tend to come right out and express our gratitude so viscerally, however the results and the reactions were phenomenal. Afterwards they gave the volunteers another questionnaire, they had no idea that their happiness was being measured or what the experiment was all about. However it was revealed that the happiness levels of the volunteers who actually got to speak to their mentor and personaly express their feelings, had improved not just a little, but dramatically.
Humm…..what if we wrote gratitude letters, or gratitude Facebook posts, or sent gratitude cards this November? I wonder how that would affect this Holiday Season. What if we each pulled someone at our Thanksgiving table's name out of a hat and then expressed to that person publicly why we are grateful for them, perhaps thanked them for something they have done for us. I wonder how that would change our Thanksgiving meal?
The New York Times says gratitude “has been linked to better health, sounder sleep, less anxiety and depression, higher long-term satisfaction with life and kinder behavior toward others, including romantic partners.” Well that would certainly make gratitude a worthwhile behavior, ya think!
How about for November you put the words THANK YOU as a screensaver or desktop pic, or hang a THANK YOU note on your wall, fridge or on your desk. Then every time you see the word, you think of something to be grateful for. If what you are grateful for is a person, then thank them then and there. When you thank someone for doing something for you, you are attracting more of that behavior. You get what you praise; it’s how I trained Molly Wiggins my puppy and how smart people train their kids.
A couple of weeks ago I saw Shawn Achor speak at the Gaylord Hotel. He’s the “Harvard Happiness Researcher” who did a famous TEDtalk. He claimed that one of the ways to create a happy life is to write 3 things you are grateful for every day. I am an absolute raving proponent of this, in fact every night before I go to sleep I write down the 5 things I am grateful for that day…..yup, even on rubbish days! And what’s more, I have been doing this for 18 years! Here are my gratitude journals to prove it, no wonder I have such a happy life!!!!
They say that feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a gift and not giving it. So what do you think? Let’s show a little more thankfulness this Thanksgiving and see what happens….who knows what kind of thankful, happy moments we will create.
Happy Thanksgiving Gorgeous Trinity Family……I for one am grateful for all the lovely people in my life, plus of course that fun, outrageous party coming up with all the amazing prizes!
Susie Wiggins
Joyful Moments
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