Beging thankful is good for your health!

"Who is rich? He who is happy with what he has." If I have heard this once, I have heard it a thousand times, and it always manages to hit the spot, you know why? Because it is true. And time and time again life has taught us this.

So if that's the case, who did they have to go and spend the time and money to do a study on it?

Seriously! http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011311230014

Ok so this study gives it a twist, "Giving thanks is good for your health," but I think I could have come to that conclusion without the study. For example, if you happy, then you are probably less stressed, and if you are not stressed your blood pressure is lower. There I figured that out all by myself.

On a serious note, we can't really knock something good in the news that may possibly have a positive effect on people. I mean can you imagine that after reading this people might actually say "thank you" more often? I can't, but I wish they did.

And isn't it ironic, and this is something that was pointed out in a friends Facebook update, that Americans go out and shop like crazy the day after we go on and on about how thankful we are for what we have? I guess our gratitude is pretty short lived.

Have you been to the mall or even to the grocery store lately? They are literally dangling things in front of your face to buy. And this whole push to begin shopping for gifts started way before Thanksgiving. So how can we make such a fuss about being thankful, when before we even give the superficial thanks, we are drooling about what we want to buy?

Wouldn't it be nice if there were more stores like Nordstrom, and not for the reason you think. They promised not to begin to December shopping push until after Thanksgiving. What a relief! Now more stores need to follow the example.

Will that happen? I am doubtful. Not because they think they make so much more money if they get the rush on in early November, but because as a society we are so driven by materialistic things that we can't help ourselves. Sad.

But I don't think that we are lost, we can change if we want to. Putting our foot down, taking hold of ourselves and especially by teaching our kids that they don't need everything they see or everything their friend has.

Maybe in 20 years being truly thankful won’t be a novelty and they won’t have to write articles about it in the paper.

Take a few minutes to think about what we are truly thankful for, the big things and the seemingly small things. I am sure I am not the only one who got and earful from my parents about when they were little they didn’t have ……. (fill in the blank). We don’t have to look back to see people who really don’t have, we can look in our schools and our communities. It may not be obvious; people try to hide what they are lacking to keep their dignity. Try to do discretely help someone and I am sure that not only will that make you feel great, but you will also feel so much more thankful what you do have. Not to mention you will be healthier!