Thankful for Good Coffee
What do you think of when I say November? If you answered Thanksgiving, great. You may have also thought of turkey, time change, longer nights, sweater weather and pumpkin pie. Today I want to focus on thanksgiving, not the holiday but the act of giving thanks, being grateful and recognizing our blessings.
In 2017 a research study was conducted using the intervention known as 3 Good Things. This intervention comes out of some work by Martin Seligman and Positive Psychology. The premise of the study which has since been replicated in several different settings was to divide the sample group into 2 smaller groups. The first group was given the task of writing down 3 things they were grateful for at the end of each day for 21 days. The other group had no intervention and just lived their lives as normal. At the end of the 21 days the group who practiced the intervention demonstrated higher levels of gratefulness which in turn led to more positive emotions overall.
The old church hymn, “Count Your Blessings,” has been proved to be not only intuitively accurate but also scientifically accurate. As we settle into this season, I would encourage you to do your own experiment. At the end of each day for the next 21 write down 3 things you are thankful for. It may be easy to just say the same few things every day like “I am thankful for my family.” But step outside that and think smaller.
Things like, I am thankful for Two Roasting Joe’s and good coffee. Or I am grateful for my washing machine so I could get our clothing washed. I am thankful for my car that has a full tank of gas (thanks Kurt.). Be creative and include the things that usually are simply taken for granted.
When we get in the habit of looking for our blessings, counting our blessings, being grateful, and writing it down we are changing our focus. Our brains are wired for negativity. It is a survival strategy. If we are always expecting and look for the negative, we can keep ourselves, at least in theory, safe. To practice 3 Good Things is to be proactive, to be intentional and to go against nature.
After your 21 days, notice how you feel, write it down, who knows this might be the start of a new way of living.
Happy Thanksgiving! Annie