Express Gratitude: This holiday season

Happy moments are approaching our lives; Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and New Year. These holidays are perhaps the most significant and festive days of our society. These occasions are where we show gratitude for the things that are happening in our lives, with pleasure and satisfaction, and share these moments with our families, friends, neighbors, and community. Even if we're close to our roots or not, it should always be a moment of gratitude and warm feelings for everyone.

In recent studies performed by psychologist Robert Emmons, of the University of California, Emmons found the benefits of what gratitude can potentially provide to our lives and our relationships. These studies indicated that in just over three weeks, people who kept a journal, showed improvements in their immune systems, blood pressure, sleep patterns, and most importantly, a more refreshing start to the day. Psychologically, these individuals showed excellent levels of positive emotions such as joy, pleasure, happiness, and optimism. In regards to their relationships, grateful people demonstrated higher levels of generosity, forgiveness, and compassion.

This raises the question, how does a simple feeling of gratitude result into greater transformative effects? Dr. Robert Emmons believes that integrating gratitude into someone’s life will increase positive emotions, allowing one to gain more pleasure in their lives, and consequently, participate in major positivism. This wonderful feeling of gratitude blocks those toxic negative emotions which causes problems such as stress, depression, and other diseases. Certainly, it is difficult to feel hate and gratitude at the same time, but if one practices the ladder one, the benefits are endless. Grateful people are more emotionally and physically, tough, because they have a perspective that allows them to enjoy significant events in their lives.

Robert Emmons in his book "Gratitude Works, A 21-day program for the Creation of Prosperity Emotional', states:

"Often there is a division between knowing what to do and how we actually end up behaving. In psychology this is called the knowledge of making a jump. Similarly, there is a gap between knowing something for which we should be grateful and how we generally feel. The depressing reality is that people don’t live based on what they know or if they should do it.
The biblical character Paul confessed:

"I do not understand what I do. And if I do what I don’t want to do, I agree that the law is good. This way, I am not the one that does it, but the sin that dwells in me. I know that nothing good dwells in me, that it is in my sinful nature. Because I have the desire to do what is good, but I can’t accomplish it".

It does not matter how complex the philosophical problems, scientific problems, or the explanatory dynamic mechanisms seem to be, this simple act of gratitude works, and one must understand that it works, and that it should be part of our daily life. Imagine for a moment that these feelings of gratitude we express in these festive occasions begin to spread gradually throughout our lives. Not only will it make us feel better, but we will pass these same feelings on to others; others who after all are part of the society in which we live. Now it is understood that our society is not perfect, and that the road is long and difficult, but we should all start expressing these feelings of gratitude today, as it is our natural and spiritual obligation to do so.
If we want to improve our society, we need to start with ourselves. We should express gratitude for what we are, for what we have, for what we can have, and even for what was granted to us undeservedly.

We are the architects of a better society for our children, and for the children of our children. Sometime ago, the magnate of Microsoft, Bill Gates once said: "It is not our fault to be born poor, but it is if we die poor." Perhaps, Gates was referring to money, but we should interpret significant poverty as a result from a lack of spirit, knowledge, values, love, and gratitude. We all, without exception, are part of one society, the "human society", and it is our moral obligation to be thankful as we will see that this small token of gratitude will unite us to be better. With this in mind, I think we all have hopes to better our lives and our planet. For example, what would happen if employers thank their employees for doing their job before they start and also after they completed the work? After all, gratitude is a good positive therapy.

Here I provide you with some simple tips on how to cultivate the practice of gratitude:
1)Keep a gratitude journal: where you just write a list of five things a week of what you are grateful for.

2)Practice counting out loud, while visualizing moments of gratitude, once daily.

3)Use visual clues to remind yourself to be grateful.

4)Learn words and even sentences, if deems necessary, of gratitude.

5)Include in your lives positive gestures: learn to smile and say thank you.

6)Do not look for a conversation to talk about you, but to be thankful for sharing with them such good moments.

7)On Christmas be thankful for what you’ll be receiving, and in New Year thankful for what you’ll be accomplishing.

"It's not what we say, but how we express it that matters, and what makes us improve our relationships” -NMJ

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years
From the members of the “New Mind Journal” and thanks for supporting our journey we wish a prosperous 2016 for all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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