Topic of Discussion

Today I am grateful for my job and the variety of experiences that come with each day I am there.

I am also grateful for the opportunity to speak with parents last evening, with gratitude being a key topic of discussion. I appreciated the opportunity to plan for this presentation, because I learned more myself and further consolidated some of my own thoughts and beliefs on the practice of gratitude.

It was a small group of parents and I am thankful for their willingness to hear me out, try a few things on paper, and to share their own wisdom and insights. I found it all heartening and energizing. I was able to include in my discussion some of the growing reasearch base about the benefits of gratitude practice for adults and young people alike.

The evidence is clear. Regular gratitude practice improves our overall well-being. Physically, our immune systems are strengthened, our blood pressure is lower, and we sleep better, exercise more. Psychologically, we have more positive emotions and are more alert, more optimistic. Socially, it helps us be more helpful and compassionate and less lonely and isolated.

For more information go to the Greater Good Science Center here. It is good to see the research starting to build, but I don't need it to convince me of the power of gratitude practice. The transformations in my life and my thought processes over the last two
decades have proven to me that gratitude is a true life-changer.

Thank you parents, and my friend Kate, for giving me the opportunity to talk about something I feel so strongly, and warmly, about.

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