Gratitude

Gratitude is not a feeling that materializes in response to your circumstances. It is a practice. Even if you feel that you have little to be grateful for this year, you can and should engage in it.

It elevates the mind.

You can call gratitude into existence by choosing to focus on the things for which you are grateful, instead of the negatives in your life.

Thankfulness has been strongly and consistently shown to raise human beings’ happiness.

It stimulates the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, part of the brain’s reward circuit.

Gratitude can make us more resilient, and enhance relationships by strengthening romantic ties, bolstering friendships, and creating family bonds that endure during times of crisis. It may improve many health indicators, such as blood pressure and diet.

Be thankful, focus on the "have" and not the "have not."

Credit: Arthur C Brooks.