The 60-seconds gratitude exercise that will transform your Thanksgiving…and life.

The world needs a reminder of what the Thanksgiving holiday was designed to be about…gratitude.

Did you know that’s literally why this holiday was created? On Nov. 1, 1777, by order of Congress, the first National Thanksgiving Proclamation announced that the third Thursday of every year was thus officially set aside: “…for solemn thanksgiving and praise. That with one heart and one voice, good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts.”

Unfortunately, the original spirit and intention of this beautiful day has been slipping out of focus in recent years due to long planning, tedious travel and the shopping frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Not surprising to see that only 20% of Americans rate gratitude as a positive and constructive emotion. For context, that number is nearly 50% in Europe.

We can change that…

We’re on a mission to turn the Tuesday before Thanksgiving into #GratiTuesday. A day where people around the country are invited to take a moment, think about the friends and family who have made their year great and share some much-needed love and appreciation with them.

While you can be grateful for a person, place or thing, we think that expressing your gratitude for the people in your life is most important. Great relationships magnify our happiness more than anything else and when our friends and family feel appreciated, it adds more depth to the connection.

But let’s be clear, sharing your gratitude isn’t simply a nice thing to do… practicing gratitude is one of the simplest things you can do to transform your life. There’s no better time to start than this Thanksgiving and in case you need some extra motivation…here’s a quick rundown of six scientifically proven benefits of practicing gratitude…

Practicing gratitude will make you happier than money or “stuff”

Because of a little phenomenon called the “Hedonic treadmill,” focusing our attention on amplifying what we have will always have a greater impact on net happiness than pursuing “more” money or material objects.

For example, the act of using a gratitude journal each day for a month has been shown to have a 10% increase on subjective happiness. Believe it or not, that is the same amount as doubling your income.

Practicing gratitude makes us stronger emotionally

• Improves our self esteem and lower our risk of depression
• Improves our resilience and ability to deal with trauma
• Reduces toxic emotions like envy, resentment and regret

Practicing gratitude make our bodies healthier

• Heightens our immune system and white blood cells to fight disease
• Decreases stress hormones like cortisol by up to 23%
• Decrease blood pressure and heart rate variability

Practicing gratitude makes us better at work

Here’s a few of our favorite research on how being grateful work will actually lead to greater professional success…

A “thank you” from a supervisor gives people a strong sense of both self-worth and self-efficacy. The expression of gratitude has a spillover effect: Individuals become more trusting with each other, and more likely to help each other out. (Adam Grant and Francesca Gino)

In a national survey (John Templeton), almost all respondents said that saying “thank you” to colleagues “made employees happier and more fulfilled.”

A recent study at Wharton showed that pep talks and articulated gratitude for fundraising professionals was leading to 50% increases in productivity.

Practicing gratitude helps us sleep better

From www.happierhuman.com...

Gratitude increases sleep quality, reduces the time required to fall asleep, and increases sleep duration.

In one study of 65 subjects with a chronic pain condition, those who were assigned a daily gratitude journal to be completed at night reported half an hour more sleep than the control group. In another study of 400 healthy people, those participants who had higher scores on a gratitude test also had significantly better sleep. They reported faster time to sleep, improved sleep quality, increased sleep duration, and less difficulty staying awake during the day.

6. Makes our marriage and relationship better

From www.happierhuman.com...

Scientists have put numbers to our intuition and experience, creating an appreciation to naggy ratio. More formally called the Losada ratio, it divides the total number of positive expressions (support, encouragement and appreciation) made during a typical interaction by the number of negative expressions (disapproval, sarcasm, and cynicism).

When the ratio was below .9, that is there were 11% more negative expressions than positive expressions, marriages plummeted towards divorce or languishment. Those marriages that lasted and were found satisfying were those with a positivity ratio above 5.1 (five positive expressions to each negative).

When we introduce gratitude into our relationships, we increase the positivity ratio and are much more likely to have a healthy, long lasting relationship.

— -

Well, there you go…if gratitude wasn’t on your mind before this post, we hope it is now. If the practice of gratitude hasn’t been an active part of your routine, we’ve got the perfect place to start. …

Send a Tribute to one person who made your year awesome.

Tribute.co is making it easy by giving you a 100% free platform where you can share your video appreciation for that special someone and then we’ll automatically deliver it to them on Thanksgiving morning along with thousands of others https://www.tribute.co/products/greetings/

Greeting will help us remember and honor the true meaning of Thanksgiving so we create more meaningful conversations and connections on this day of thanks.

We would love your support in sharing gratitude with your friends and family.

Let’s. Do. This.