By David Stanczak
In my past Thanksgiving addresses to the nation, I enumerated some of the reasons to be thankful on Thanksgiving, or focused on one of them that seemed particularly important to me at the time. Not so today, although I still believe in the truth of every one of those messages.
Today, I’m actually going to urge you to be selfish and do something for yourself. No, I’m not going to suggest that you stuff yourself with food until you’re in pain, nor am I going to suggest that you abandon all activities that might help others, or that you start Black Friday early and leave your family at home while you go shopping-for yourself.
I’m going to suggest that you make yourself happy by being grateful.
A recent online article from WebMD (okay, I know it’s not the Mayo Clinic) listed 6 ways to be a happier person. At the top of the list was “Give Thanks.” In a related quiz, the article said, “Psychologists studying the effects of positive emotions say gratitude can boost our sense of happiness if we turn it into a conscious and regular practice. Feeling gratitude, they say, is something you do (such as expressing gratitude or keeping a gratitude journal), not something you wait for.”
The reason for this phenomenon is not hard to find. Our subconscious minds find and focus on what we consciously focus on and search for. If you look for crap in your life, you can and will find it, and your immersion in it will make you a crabby person like Lucy Van Pelt of Peanuts.
But, if you look for things in your life to be happy about and thankful for, you will find them too. It will take practice, because you’re not used to doing it. Every day, before retiring or upon arising, make a list of 5-10 things you are or could be grateful for in your life. No repeats. Think about how those things make you feel. What should you be grateful for, you ask. That’s up to you, but the possibilities are endless once you start looking for them. You could start with the things people traditionally give thanks for on Thanksgiving.
One of the things on my list is the support I have received from listeners over the years. Thank you.
David Stanczak, a Forum commentator since 1995, came to Bloomington in 1971. He served as the City of Bloomington’s first full-time legal counsel for over 18 years, before entering private practice. He is currently employed by the Snyder Companies and continues to reside in Bloomington with his family.
The opinions expressed within WJBC’s Forum are solely those of the Forum’s author, and are not necessarily those of WJBC or Cumulus Media Inc.
