It’s Thanksgiving, which means we’re supposed to be grateful and think about all the reasons we’re better off than most people and all of that fluff.
That’s nice and all, but gratitude should be more than a moral obligation. Over the past few years, I’ve made a habit of practicing gratitude, and it serves a number of useful, practical purposes. It’s made me happier. It’s helped me bounce back from setbacks better. It’s even benefited my finances. In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I’d share a couple of essays I’ve written on gratitude and how you can harness it to make your life better, too. Enjoy, turkey-filled friends.
Why Gratitude Makes You a Happier Person (Lifehacker): “Stop pitying yourself, people have it worse, you should be grateful.” You’ve probably heard this before, and it’s some of the most cliché, unhelpful advice around. When gratitude is inspired by guilt, obligation, or shame, that’s not gratitude at all. True gratitude is a practical tool that serves a number of purposes beyond the after school special fluff of being thankful for what you have. [Keep reading…]
How a Bit of Gratitude Helped Improve My Spending Habits (Lifehacker): Money seems like it has everything to do with logic and little to do with feelings. But our emotions can have a pretty big impact on how we deal with our finances. Gratitude, for example, can affect spending (and even investing) in a big way. Here’s a first-hand account of how it changed my own financial habits for the better. [Keep reading…]
Original graphic by: Gerd Altmann
Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving Kristin!
I must admit I don’t frequent the Lifehacker site as much as I had in the past (i blame the baby :)), so I’m glad I get to see some of your posts that I missed. That site is a black hole! I get lost in it – which led me to your awesome post about The Five Stages of Grief After Losing Your Job. Lots of good points in that post that I hadn’t considered.
Being grateful for what I have definitely keeps the urge to spend! I’m happy to say I didn’t shop at all last weekend!
I know what you mean! I frequently get lost in it. Glad you liked that post! It was right around this time of year that I was laid off and looking for work. Anyway, yes–gratitude is wonderful. Not just for the touchy feely reasons, but it’s a great tool to keep your mindset in line!
Very well said! I love your writing style…easy to read and informative!
Thanks for reading, Anna!