Count Your Blessings

With Thanksgiving a mere day away, I hope you will join me in counting your blessings. Whether you’ve had a really good year so far or a lousy one, each one of us has a reason to be grateful.

But if you need some encouragement to focus on the positive instead of the negative, here are a few of my favorites.

1. Having a thankful heart is the antidote to greed. We all know that being grateful for what you have can ease the grip of envy, but what we don’t often fully understand is that it also breeds contentment. And contentment keeps a check on wanting more “stuff.” Whether it’s buying more stuff for others or ourselves, being thankful for what we have can help us during this season so often marked by marketers trying to entice us to want what we don’t have.
2. Intangibles are better than tangibles. Our families, friends, and fellowship are better for our overall being than more things. Use this season to make sure you’ve told the important people in your life how much they mean to you. If you need to reconcile with anyone, don’t let the year slip away without making amends.
3. Thankfulness makes you happier. There’s probably a study done that supports this with empirical evidence, but gratitude changes your outlook on life.
4. Thankfulness isn’t a feeling, it’s an attitude. You might not feel thankful, but you can become thankful simply by deciding you will list your blessings. Start with the obvious ones—your family, your home, your health, your job, etc. If you don’t have one of those, don’t wallow on that but focus instead on what you do have.
5. Write it down. Make a list of your top 10 things for which to be thankful and tack it up on your fridge or bathroom mirror. Visit it often, adding to it as you think of new things for which to be grateful. There’s nothing like being reminded in black and white of your blessings.
6. Get your kids involved. Come up with a family list of blessings. You’ll be surprised with what your children will say. Turning this into a family affair and let the creative juices flow.

Early in 2014, Sarah and Mary Elizabeth Peritti will speak on Parenting With Love & Leadership in a four-part webinar series. Contact Sarah through her website for more information.

Do you have a parenting question you would like to see answered on this blog? Email Sarah with Parenting Question in the subject line. Sign up for Practical Parenting, Sarah and Mary Elizabeth’s a free, monthly e-newsletter with commonsense advice on child rearing, by visiting www.parentcoachnova.com and clicking on the newsletter tab.

Sarah Hamaker is a certified Leadership Parenting Coach™ through the Rosemond Leadership Parenting Coach Institute. She’s also a freelance writer and editor. Sarah lives in Fairfax, Va., with her husband and four children. Visit her online at www.parentcoachnova.com and follow her on Twitter @novaparentcoach.