Here we are in November and soon those of us on social media will start seeing the public Thanksgiving thankfulness countdowns. I don\u2019t know, maybe the people who do those feel they need to share what they\u2019re thankful for with everyone as a way of holding them accountable, of being sure they do it each day. However if I learned anything from reading \u201cThe Grateful Life: The Secret to Happiness and the Science of Contentment\u201d by Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammon it\u2019s that for gratitude to be effective it can\u2019t be seasonal, it\u2019s a lifestyle choice. And just like making any type of lifestyle change, it can be easier said than done.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/the-grateful-life.png\")
Fortunately \u201cThe Grateful Life\u201d is full of real life stories of how people have learned the value of gratitude and have incorporated it into their lives. Many readers will find a person who they can emphasize with, or find a connection to. These stories end with a tip as to how those people incorporate gratitude into their daily lives. Often times there are links to websites for some of the altruistic projects the people are involved in.<\/p>\n
Lesowitz and Sammons also take time to talk about some studies that have been done regarding gratitude and the effects it has on physical health. The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkley are building on findings that consciously choosing to focus on the positive can combat the release of stress hormones that compromise our immune systems and cause inflammation disease. The Greater Good Science Center, in collaboration with the University of California, Davis awarded $3 million in grants to expand the scientific understanding of gratitude. What I\u2019m saying is these gals ain\u2019t just whistlin\u2019 Dixie.<\/p>\n
How about this Thanksgiving instead of just a seasonal countdown of thankfulness you pick up a copy of \u201cThe Grateful Life\u201d and consider doing the work of making a real change?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What if instead of just counting down on social media what you’re thankful for this Thanksgiving you consider more of a lifestyle change?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,20,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11034"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}