Have you ever noticed how when you are happy everything seems to go better?  Maintaining a mentality of love and gratitude can help keep you in this space.  To use a gardening metaphor: learning to cultivate a landscape of gratitude in your life will allow you to reap happiness far more often than focusing on what isn’t working.

So in honor of Thanksgiving here are some tips and ideas which will help plant the seeds for your garden of gratitude to grow strong.

#1 This month I noticed that many friend devoted their Facebook status updates to gratitude.  I found this helpful because so far for every day in the month of November I’ve had a visual reminder to be thankful and it sparked my own postings related to gratitude.  Not only that, but seeing what others are grateful for has reminded me of some of the things that I take for granted like clean running water.

You can do this on your own with your Facebook status, Twitter updates, in a journal at home, during grace or thanksgiving before a meal, or to a friend or co-worker in conversation.

#2 Comes from Stress.about.com: When you notice yourself getting down and focusing on negativity stop yourself and think of 4 or 5 things for which you are grateful.

#3 Also originates from about.com from the post 10 Simple Ways to Show Gratitude.   My favorite gem is carry a talisman around with you that reminds you of gratitude.

I’ve done this before with a necklace of mine.  Its beads were strung together to give a woman the option to leave forced prostitution.  When I touch the necklace, I remember.  When I remember I am driven to succeed in my work to make the world a better place, and I feel grateful.  Grateful for my free speech, and access to a computer to share those thoughts.  Grateful because I have three full meals per day and a roof over my head.  Grateful for the opportunities that rain down on me every day.  Finally, I am grateful because I could be in that same position but for the grace of God.

I am Grateful for all the opportunities, love and riches in my life.

I am.
I am.
I AM.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because:

- It is about being grateful.
- You spend the time with the people who are the most important to you whether they are family or friends.
- It is a celebration of the harvest, or the good things that have come to you in the previous year.
- I do love good food and wine!

Gratitude is something that I regularly practice.  I say practice because it isn’t always easy to be grateful for a lost job, ending relationship, death of a loved one, et cetera.  But with every situation in our lives no matter how challenging and difficult, there comes the opportunity for learning, success and growth.   This is not always obvious and so often you can feel knocked down and that is the best time to practice remembering that like other ‘bad’ times this too will give birth to something better.

We don’t always know why things happen, but I have had many times in my past that I have felt hurt or resentful because of a given situation (not getting in to Colby for college, the lost of a good friend without reason.)  Later in life I understood why those situations happened, some many times over, and was able to feel grateful for them because of what came next that would not have been possible otherwise.

Now in my life, I am grateful and open when something that seems challenging comes up.  I realize that it may be quiting my job that allows for the space for my dream job to come into my life.  I am more open to understanding that every situation has a silver lining or possibility attached to it.