Today is Thanksgiving in the US and although I’m not American, I do appreciate the prompt to think of all the things I have in my life to be grateful for.
Gratitude is something that a lot of people talk about these days – and with good reason!
When we feel grateful, we trigger the brain’s reward system to release dopamine and serotonin, which are those “feel good” neurotransmitters.
I saw a post on social media the other day – your brain is wired to keep you alive, not happy.
So your brain will automatically look out for all the things that might harm you…
But it won’t automatically look out for all the reasons you have to smile.
You have to tell it to do that! – Repeatedly
It’s worth doing though
If we can shift our focus from all the things that could go wrong, to all the things that are good about life, we feel better about things!
I make a list each day of at least 5 things I am grateful for.
This is a good practice because it gets us into the habit of looking for the positives.
On a day where everything’s gone right, that’s fairly easy
But if things did not go to plan, it can be a challenge to find one thing we’re grateful for .
Once you get into the habit though, it’s easy to spot these things.
Thanksgiving in general is a day where our American friends give thanks for the blessings of the past year.
So here are some things I am grateful for this past year:
My health, enabling me to complete my 3 rather big swim challenges this year
Seeing my daughter Ruby all settled in at Uni and loving her musical theatre degree course
All the friends I’ve made through my cold water swimming
The opportunity to send out these weekly messages to 1000’s of people and the wonderful responses I receive
What are you thankful for today?