Mary’s Minute
"If you want to turn your life
around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily."
~ Gerald Good
I have been writing Mary’s Minute for a long time (over 16 years), and
probably the concept I have written most about is gratitude. And I am not going to stop, because I do
believe that being grateful is one of the most important things we can do to
live happy lives.
This week in her blog (Zoshamarie.com or on Facebook @Choose Happy) my
daughter, Zoe wrote about ways to stay happy even when we are busy. One technique she suggested was to practice
gratitude. She explains that physically
our brains cannot feel stress and gratitude at the same time. I am going to practice testing this theory in
my own life, and I challenge you to do the same. We should strive to always practice gratitude
(writing in a gratitude journal or just thinking about the things in life for which
we are grateful), but it could be especially valuable when we are feeling
stressed. Imagine the possibilities!
I also was thinking about the implications that this could have with our
students. We know our students are
stressed, so what if we could find ways to replace their stress with gratitude? Part of being stressed is seeing all the bad
that we are facing. Practicing gratitude
allows us to replace the negatives with positives. I know it sounds overly simple, but science
says that it really works.
It is a great practice to express gratitude to others because it is good
for us and them, but the kind of gratitude that I am talking about now is filling
our hearts and heads with simple self-talk that others may not even see to change
our state of mind.
Everyone has struggles and stress, but gratitude is a practice that can elevate
the pain and disruption that stress can cause.
We all have things for which we are thankful. I hope you can reflect on your list in order
to help you live a happy life!
Gratefully
yours,
Mary
Thank you, Mary. Excellent advice!
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