Attitude of gratitude, power of positive thinking, thankful, #blessed, most of us have heard about the importance of showing gratitude and how it can tremendously alter our health. This is so true, but a part of that gratitude we don’t often look at is how expressing it to the people in our life can be beneficial for them.

You never know the struggles someone else is facing. You speaking up and telling them how thankful you are for what they have done, who they are, that they are in your life, may be just the thing they need to face those challenges. (It has also been shown that saying thanks you dramatically increases the chance someone will help you again, so yes there is benefit for you in saying thank you.) It has been shown that people who have been thanked pass it on and thank someone else shortly after. This chain effect is a way helping someone feel valued can go a long way in a world that often seems to be headed in the wrong direction. Small acts of kindness and gratitude are a way we can contribute to a better world.

As a family for the month of November we each write out something we are thankful for daily and hang them in the house, this year we are going to add writing thank you notes to others also.

Keep writing in that gratitude journal, but be sure to also express that gratitude to those around you.