Originally Posted by
Machka
If you try, maybe you can think of something to be thankful for now ... maybe even every day from now till your Thanksgiving.
Your often expressed belief that people who disagree with you are less happy than you is very interesting...but not very insightful.
If you must know, for the past 30 years, I have composed a daily list of things that I'm thankful for. Actually, it's "things that make me happy," but I am thankful for things that make me happy. At first I wrote the list down in my journal every day, but now it's such an ingrained habit that I automatically compose it in my head each morning as I get ready to go to sleep. (I work nights, so I go to bed in the morning.) Sometimes it's hard to think of five things, but I believe I have gotten it just about every day.
One nice thing about a daily list is that it makes me aware of good things that happen when they happen. If something good happens, I have a fleeting thought that "this will go on my list today." Therefore, I'm more aware of things that make me happy
when they actually happen, and again later in the day when I compose the list.
For me, the only difference that Thanksgiving makes is that I'm more likely to make my list public--at least to my family and friends.
(I got the idea to make a "list of five things that make me happy" from Gershen Kauffman, a psychology professor at Michigan State University.)