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Friday, March 16, 2012

5 Gratitudes a Day

Every morning, my husband and I, via email, exchange 5 things for which we are grateful. We've been doing this for a little over a month, and I am pleased to report it is a practice that is already paying great dividends.

In accordance with the Shawn Achor talk I posted recently, I have learned that happiness takes some work, some practice. Or, rather, happiness is already there, waiting to be found, if only you are willing to look for it. Then, once it is uncovered, the radiance of the happiness already present in your life surrounds you and infuses you with more joy, more gratitude, more happiness.

Happy is a verb. I choose to happy my life. One of the ways I do so is by doing this quick, daily practice of five gratitudes.

Go ahead. Try it.

Today, I'm grateful for:




  1.  
If you're so inclined, leave your gratitudes in the comments. They don't all have to be deep and profound, either. Just the other day, I gave thanks for automatic dishwashers. Or really good dark chocolate. The point is to look at your world and see what you feel gratitude for. 

I challenge you to do this for 21 days. If I were selling something, I'd make a money-back guarantee that you will see a positive shift in your life by the end of those 21 days. Fortunately, doing this is free. Nothing to hold you back. So...what are you grateful for today?

Peace and happiness,
Tiffany

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Today, I am grateful for:
1. Meeting you.
2. Running water, specifically when dispensed by the tall faucet in my kitchen sink.
3. Safe places to walk my dogs.
4. PTO.
5. Honey vanilla chamomile tea.

ggouveia said...

Good suggestion, Tiffany. I'm going to work at it.

1. The approach of Spring!

2. Grandchildren

3. NPR

4. Cows and calves

5. Tuna salad in a grilled roll

Tiffany Hamburger said...

Hi Erzsebet! (I think that's you!)
I'm grateful for meeting you, too, and I love your gratitudes. (Though I don't know what PTO is.)

Thanks for commenting!

Tiffany Hamburger said...

Hi Gail!
So good to see you here, and thanks so much for commenting.

I love everything you're grateful for, too. Isn't it neat how seeing other people's gratitudes increases your own list, until you find yourself completely amazed by how much richness and good things are in your life and world?

Hope to see you here again soon!

Alison said...

Today I am grateful for:
1. kale and apple and manchego salad that I took the time to make.
2. An affectionate dog who accepts that we skipped a walk today.
3. A friend who stayed on the phone when I was worried.
4. Bright sunshine.
5. A friend who sent me a surprise gift, based on what she thought I'd like "just because."

Tiffany Hamburger said...

Hi Alison--
thanks so much for leaving your gratitudes here. They're great! (And I am loving kale right now, so leave your kale, manchego and apple salad recipe here if you feel so inclined!)

Thanks for reading and commenting!

Peace,
Tiffany

Alison said...

Hi! Kale is so great-an acquired taste at first, and then (with the help of pricey red kale at organic market) something i crave more and more.

Hm, let's see--that salad was
-a sweet (honey crisp-like) apple, thin wide slices

-really thin, wide shavings (not shredded--weirdly picky i know) of aged manchego (10 yrs--a splurge)

-4 leaves of curly kale, rinsed then very briefly dunked in boiling water to soften just a tad and remove additional gunk

I don't *think* I added anything else. That's the problem with experimenting in the kitchen; no recipes leave a paper trail.

Sometimes i do olive oil/lemon/bit of salt over stuff.

Tiffany Hamburger said...

Alison--thank you for the "recipe"! I'm gonna have to give that a try, it sounds so yummy.

Like you said, it's a bit of an acquired taste, but now I find that I'm craving it! Also my son keeps tasting it (and spitting it out), but he keeps asking to taste it, so I hope eventually he just decides he likes it! :-)

Thanks again...