The holiday season is all about showing gratitude and thankfulness.

Showing thankfulness and gratitude brings awareness to yourself as well as others. According to greatergood’s article on how gratitude changes you and your brain, it has been proven to break individuals away from toxic emotions, leave a long lasting positive effect on the brain, and is overall healthy for you to do. 

A group of people from the greater good article on gratitude conducted an experiment where they compared the mental health of those using positive emotion words to negative emotion words in their writings. The people that were being tested used more positive emotion words than negative. It has been proven that those who used a more positive tone in their writing had a better mental health to report. It is important for everyone to focus on improving their mental health. “Perhaps this suggests that gratitude letter writing produces better mental health by shifting one’s attention away from toxic emotions, such as resentment and envy,” 

Thanksgiving is a time where we gather around with our loved ones and celebrate a time to be thankful. Showing gratitude and thankfulness is not only for thanksgiving day, but can be done throughout the holiday season. Keep in mind that appreciating everything one has shouldn’t just be practiced in the next couple of months, but all year round. Practicing being graceful all year round will help keep a healthy mind set.

Gratitude is more than just an action. There is a way of defining gratitude, and being able to measure its effects of creating a more positive, more stable mental and internal environment. There is more to just feeling thankful, as the deep appreciation that you feel produces a better and longer form of positivity.

There are no limits to what you could be thankful for. You could start by being grateful for your family and/or friends. Some may even say they are grateful for their favorite book. Anything you consider to be a beneficial part of your life is worth expressing gratitude for. The good and bad things in your life should be acknowledged, because that is what makes your life yours. A daily gratitude practice would be life changing.