In September, Kathy attended the annual Texas Association of School Boards (virtual) convention. The opening presenter was Shawn Achor, whose TEDTalk on happiness and success has more than 13 million views. Afterward, she shared the keynote with our daughter and me.
The former Harvard researcher spoke about how showing gratitude for the things in our lives is linked to happiness. He suggested five daily habits – all easy to do – that can elevate your happiness meter:
> Exercise at least 15 minutes
> Journal for two minutes
> Meditate for two minutes
> Send one positive email of three sentences to someone
> Express out loud three things you are grateful for that happened in the past day
While I’m not much on journaling (although these blogs might be a form of that), I do exercise and try to focus on silence for a few minutes each day. Since seeing his presentation, I am trying to send a daily positive email – or at least several texts.
The big change for the three adults living in our house occurs during our main meal. We committed to sharing three things we’re thankful for… and it’s made a difference in how I feel about the challenges of doing business by distance… and also taken our conversations to a much deeper level.
In this time of Thanksgiving, think about how you can start giving thanks more often.
