Why wait for Thanksgiving Day?
by Ngozi Osuagwu, MD | November 1st, 2021
The other day I was bouncing around the hospital as happy as I can be and someone asked me what drug was I on — they wanted the same drug. I told them that the drug was sleep. I had a good night’s sleep. However, I realized what was helping me sleep was gratitude. Gratitude was a stronger drug.
Gratitude helps you relax, reduces stress, improves sleep, reduces depression, and encourages exercise. Gratitude is a completely free drug and you have full control of the manufacturing of this drug. Gratitude is good for your health. Why wait until Thanksgiving Day to express our gratitude. We can start today.
To get the full benefit, there must be action behind the gratitude. Here are some wonderful gratitude exercises:
- Get a small notebook and write three things that you are grateful for each evening before you go to bed and when you awake in the morning, you can review what you have written. You should see a difference in yourself in just one week. Try this for at least 30 days.
- Find 2 – 3 people and text each other three things that you are grateful for and do this for 30 days. You cannot repeat. Yes, that would mean in one month you would have found 90 things that you are thankful for in your life. This works well with at least 3 people in the texting group and having an end time in the evening when you cannot text. I would suggest 9:00 PM as that time.
- Send out thank you notes to people who have made you the person that you are today. Your ‘personal’ influencers. The person sending the letter and the person receiving the letter both benefit. Try sending a note once a week for the next 4 weeks.
- Take a picture of something that you are grateful for each day for the next 30 days. Add it to a special album on your phone titled “gratitude album” and notice the beauty around you.
- Fill up a gratitude jar or vase – Find an empty jar or vase and each day write down on a piece of paper what you are grateful for and fold the piece of paper and drop it in the jar. Watch the jar fill up.
There are various ways to express gratitude. Find what works for you. Not only is expressing gratitude great for your health, but you will find that is the love song to your soul.
Yes, yes, yes!!!!! I wholeheartedly concur! I think that some people take small things for granted, not thinking about being grateful for them, and may not think about them until there are challenges, or they’re gone.
Agree. The small things are just as important as the big things in our lives. We should always be grateful.