30 Days of Thanks

As Thanksgiving approaches, a trending topic throughout social media is “30 Days of Thanks.” The 30 Days of Thanks project was started over a year ago, and has become a movement, with themes changing monthly. Anastacia, author of the blog, explains that her first thing to be thankful for was love. “Love for self, love for others, loving freely and deeply and the magic that comes from that.”

Often times, our lives get so wrapped up in school, work, and other responsibilities that we forget to step back and evaluate the things that are so precious in our lives. We’ve all heard about the benefits of keeping a positive attitude, but we now have scientific proof that it actually works.

In a study performed by Robert Emmons of CaliforniaUniversity, participants who wrote down what they were thankful for felt high levels of optimism and positivity were more likely to exercise, and more frequently helped or care for people with personal problems. Being thankful over time keeps us healthier, betters our relationships, and boosts our mood.

So this month as you are getting ready for Turkey Day, do your own experiment. Whether you tweet it, put it as your Facebook status, write it on your blog, journal about it, or simply tell your family and friend, take a few minutes out of your day to think about what you are thankful for.

Today at the Early Learning Coalition, we are thankful for our wonderful donors. Every year, we count on your generosity and kindness to help make what we do possible.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, and confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow."  - Melodie Beattie