I was chopping vegetables for dinner the other night with my husband beside me as he worked on another part of the meal assembly. A seemingly mundane task began to fill me with such appreciation and contentment. Working as a team, we were enjoying light conversation while feelings of gratitude grew within me. I was fully present and felt happiness spreading through me, to him and our kitchen. At that moment, I shared with him how grateful I am that we are doing life together and asked him how often he feels grateful. This led to a nice chat between us as I realized that I experience feelings of gratitude and appreciation just about every day.

You see, if we are always looking for something grand to happen in life, we miss the quiet, small moments that really matter. If we are comparing ourselves to others, we miss the beauty of what we have right in front of us. If we keep our thoughts on events and people of the past, we lose our opportunity to experience the richness of what today holds. In the longing for others to behave differently and dissatisfaction of what is, we don’t take ownership of our own inner landscape. Even worse, we operate from a sense of lack. However, we choose our thoughts and thus we choose how we feel. So, how do we change the tides within us?

The single easiest way to move the meter of our own happiness scale is to cultivate gratitude. In positive psychology research by Harvard Medical School, “gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.”

I wholeheartedly agree with the Harvard research. Along my life’s journey to greater happiness, I began a gratitude journal. Everyday I would write down 1 - 3 things that I was grateful for. I did this for months and it became an instrument of healing for me. I readily began to see the abundance in my life and over time, I became happier and now feel that I live everyday with a grateful, happy heart. This powerful practice is one I recommend to anyone.

During November, join Creation Yoga as we aim to connect with the theme of gratitude. We’ll do things together that help us feel grateful, calm and happy.