It seems easier to be Thankful for the larger details of our existence: Family, Environment and Circumstance… especially if: 1. That family is both loving and supportive 2. That environment is conducive to good health and 3. The circumstances are loaded with choices of creative expression. These can be enriching aspects of our lives with potential to dramatically nurture our success and overall feelings of Abundance & Happiness. They, no doubt, make triumph more triumphant and/or challenges… a bit easier to take on.  And, so we often acknowledge and give thanks for their essential influence in our lives. Those people and those “things” are worth every second of our gratitude. Because, they DO directly effect our perception of  Happiness. They certainly help support, sustain and nurture our inner most human tendencies. Let’s call them the  “Monumental Pieces of our Gratitude Picture”. And, around November loads of people take it upon themselves to express their “Thanks” to those truly pivotal pieces of their puzzle.

And, while enough can not be said in the way of giving thanks to those deserving of our gratitude,  I have found it just as beneficial (and maybe even more essential) to focus on the smaller puzzle pieces of my life, in an attempt to find a sense of Gratitude in all things, big AND small. Most imperatively when we recognize parts of the 3 above mentioned factors (Family, Environment & Circumstance) that could be improved.

It is an involved life experiment to take responsibility for where abundance, gratitude and happiness are being released and where they are being withheld. Because, just as those external pieces effect us … research has proven that what we have going on inside (our mind and our body) effects up to 40% of our happiness. Let’s agree that feelings of abundance and gratitude go hand in hand with happiness. You can’t very well be feeling: Full, Loved, Enriched, Prosperous and Healthy while simultaneously feeling like shit. So let’s, for a moment, take to heart what many researchers support as “Determinants of Happiness“:

I am not suggesting that we only give thanks to that which makes us “Happier“. In fact, I believe many people understand how important it is to be gracious and thankful for the things that help us grow, the people that challenge us, the trials, the errors and all that stuff in between. Because, those more thought provoking times in our lives…they are what ultimately help us define ourselves, and our place in the world. – Read On…>