Be Thankful - And Enjoy Every Day of Your Life

Thanksgiving is the time to be thankful and a time for sharing with others. It is also a time when we rediscover how to enjoy every day of life.

As the Thanksgiving season quickly approaches, we must take time to stop, really look around and appreciate all the riches we have in our lives. Remember those less fortunate; without the basic needs in life, especially kids in need.

“Riches” in this case is not a reference to materialism, rather a measure of the non-materialistic wealth afforded to us through love, companionship, friendship, health and overall wellbeing. For many of us our families, friends, and health, make up the heart and lungs of our expansive lives. Without them we are left with noticeable voids and emptiness. These “riches” make us feel significant, acknowledged, and validated. They provide us with encouragement needed to realize our true potential, purpose, and place in the world, yet all too often we take them for granted, assuming they’ll always be there and/or fail to appreciate them for their invaluableness…which is certainly something we should recognize and be thankful for.

Be Thankful - The Key to Happiness

Why is it for the majority of us, we must first struggle through illness, misfortune and general bad luck in order to realize how “rich” our lives truly are. Is this perhaps a clever form of reverse psychology that God provides to teach us virtues like humility and gratitude?  Let me be the fist to affirm that it is!

Once we learn to be thankful ALL the time, we also learn how to enjoy every day of our lives. Like many things in life, there is a very clear cause and effect relationship that must first be learned because without darkness, there cannot be light; without hate there cannot be love; without lack there cannot be abundance and without ungratefulness there cannot be gratitude.

So to begin, start by picking one thing each day to be thankful for. It could be as simple as a “thank you” for waking up to the warm sunshine on your face, or a “thank you” for a smile that lifts your spirits. I once read that the key to a happy life is to do the following at least once a day:  tell someone “good job”, “ I appreciate you”, “I love you”, “I’m glad you are here”, “I miss you” and last but not least “thank you”. And of course not to be forgotten, be sure to smile, laugh, and give someone a hug at least once a day.

It is these “riches” and others like GRATITUDE that we enjoy every day of our lives. Not such a big secret after all, just something we all learned how to do when we were children, but somehow let the business of life make us forget.

Be Thankful, Be Happy and Love Life, Because…

“No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.” -Henry Ward Beecher

References:

Picture: http://www.seo.com/blog/be-thankful/
Quote: http://www.trans4mind.com/counterpoint/index-humor-inspiration/haw2.shtml