Life is full of challenges, both big and small. Almost everyone is experiencing greater stressors and uncertainty than in years past. While you cannot always control what happens in your life or in the world, you can control how you respond each day.
One of the most powerful ways to improve your mental health, build resilience, and enhance wellbeing is through gratitude. Practicing gratitude is one of the simplest, most powerful ways to live a more joyful fulfilling life, regardless of what is going on in your life or the world. Practicing gratitude is free, is accessible to all, is accessible at any time, feels good in the moment, and has long-term mental health/emotional benefits.
In our presentation, Gratitude: The Missing Key to Your Happiness, on November 20 @7pm you will learn five simple, brain-based gratitude exercises you can start using immediately and practice regularly to boost your mood, strengthen your mental health and become a stronger, calmer, and happier version of yourself.
Drawing on her 30 years of experience as a psychologist helping people navigate depression, anxiety, overwhelm, trauma, grief, and loss, Dr. Peggy DeLong will teach you research-backed gratitude methods that are easy to integrate into your life – even on the hardest days. These powerful practices require little time, money, or energy, yet their benefits are profound.
“Don’t save gratitude for the good days. Gratitude is truly most powerful on our difficult days. Simply put, gratitude heals”, says Peggy
In this session, you will learn:
- How you can start every day in a better mood with little time or effort by priming your brain with just two words
- About the brain science behind gratitude and setting your intention for the day, and how you can make it work for you effortlessly
- How gratitude can help with falling asleep and getting back to sleep when those “worry thoughts” keep you awake at 3AM
- How gratitude can improve your relationships with your partner, children, and clients, and improve your satisfaction in life and your business
- Why there is no such thing as a “negative” emotion, and how to use your pain and discomfort to learn and grow
- Three benefits of focusing on gratitude at bedtime.
The program is open to all and no registration is required.
And here are some inspirational reads on the theme of gratitude that are available to borrow with your Livingston Library card.
Get Me Through the Next Five Minutes : Odes to Being Alive by James Parker
Our politics are broken; our world is melting; the next catastrophe looms. Enter James Parker, who for years now has been writing odes of appreciation on subjects from the seemingly minor (“Ode to Naps”) to the unexpected (“Ode to Giving People Money”) to the seemingly minor, unexpected, and hyperspecific (“Ode to Running in Movies”). Each ode is an exercise in gratitude. Each celebrates the permanent susceptibility of everyday humdrum life to dazzling saturations of divine light: the squirrel in the street, the crying baby, the misplaced cup of tea. Parker’s odes are songs of praise, but with a decent amount of complaining in there, too: a human ratio of moans. Varied in length but unified in tone, mostly in prose, sometimes toppling into verse, the odes range across music, movies, literature, psychology, and beyond, all through the lens of Parker’s personal history. Gathered together, they form an accidental how-to guide to honoring your own experience-and to finding your own odes.
Gratitude by Oliver Sacks
During the last few months of his life, Sacks wrote a set of essays in which he movingly explored his feelings about completing a life and coming to terms with his own death. Together, these four essays form an ode to the uniqueness of each human being and to gratitude for the gift of life.
Gratitude Daily: 21 Days to More Joy and Less Stress by Nataly Kogan
21 short, fun lessons that you can do anytime and anywhere, featuring practices such as “Gratitude Zoom,” “Tiny Miracles,” and “Gratitude for Imperfection.” In each 10-15 minute lesson, you’ll not only learn how to do each practice, but why, as Nataly shares fascinating tidbits from psychology, neuroscience, and her own successes.
The Gratitude Diaries: How a Year Looking on the Bright Side Can Transform Your Life by Janice Kaplan
Getting advice at every turn from psychologists, academics, doctors, and philosophers, Kaplan brings readers on a smart and witty journey to discover the value of appreciating what you have. Relying on both amusing personal experiences and extensive research, Kaplan explores how gratitude can transform every aspect of life, including marriage and friendship, money and ambition, and health and fitness.
Gratitude : Why Giving Thanks is Key to Our Well-Being by Cornelius Plantinga
An award-winning author shows that gratitude is not only our righteous duty but also the single best predictor of our own well-being, encompassing joy, generosity, contentment, better relationships, and improved health.
I Want to Thank You : How a Year of Gratitude Can Bring Joy and Meaning in a Disconnected World by Gina Hamadey
Hamadey chronicles how twelve months spent writing 365 thank you notes to strangers, neighbors, family, and friends shifted her perspective – and why developing a lasting active gratitude practice can make you a happier person, heal complicated relationships, and reconnect you with the people you love — all with just a little bit of bravery at the mailbox.
Leading with Gratitude : Eight Leadership Practices for Extraordinary Business Results by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton
Showing gratitude to employees is the easiest, fastest, most inexpensive way to boost performance. Gostick and Elton introduce eight simple ways managers can show employees they are valued. They supplement their insights and advice with stories of how many of today’s most successful leaders–such as Alan Mulally of Ford and Hubert Joly of Best Buy–successfully incorporated gratitude into their leadership styles.
The Lives we Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days by Kate Bowler
Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie reveal how every day is worth blessing–even Tuesdays. In a world that demands relentless perfection, Bowler and Richie offer creative, faith-based blessings that center gratitude and hope without making light of our real, messy lives.
The Power of Thank You : Discover the Joy of Gratitude by Joyce Meyer
“Each moment that you’re given is a precious gift from God. You can choose to have a thankful attitude and live each moment full of joy, simply because God is good.” Renowned Bible teacher Meyer encourages us to take a look at ourselves and the importance of being thankful.
Thanks a Thousand : A Gratitude Journey by A. J. Jacobs
After being dared by his son, A. J. Jacobs decided to thank every single person involved in producing his morning cup of coffee. The resulting journey takes him across the globe and transforms his life.
— Archana, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian