HHB Day 4: Write Thank Yous

I saw Shawn Achor speak last year (life changing) and both in his talk and in his books he stresses the importance of gratitude as a way of building happiness. And specifically he mentions thanking the people in your life as an almost instant happy boost. I cannot even explain how quickly sending gratitude to another brings me joy.

So I'm talking a lot about journaling this week on the FB MYL page. The old school, down and dirty, journals with lists and dreams, and brain dumps. The kind of thing I did in therapy in my teens and twenties, where I collage together dreams and write 10 things I love about myself. Or 5 things I am grateful for. Or just brain dump everything spinning in my mind (a habit I literally CANNOT recommend enough).

Sometimes I use one of my fifty-eleven pretty journals because I want paper and sometimes I use my phone or laptop to add to a file I keep running. And while my gratitude lists are super powerful ways to remind myself of all of the beauty and grace and kindness in my life, thank you notes are ten times more powerful.

Sometimes it's for a gift or for someone joining one of MYL spOIL groups, because I am so privileged to have so many new and amazing women in my life. Sometimes it's a shout out to my friends or tribe on social media. Sometimes it's an email to a mentor. Sometimes it's a DM to #RachelHollis or another author or speaker I love. They will likely never read my notes, but I don't care, because now in my head, they know the grace and inspiration they have brought to my life.

Every time you consider and express gratitude, you are choosing to see the wonder someone has added to your life. Even taking a survey after some great customer service will do it for me. Every note or message or post is a step towards a world of appreciation, kindness, and wonder. Every note or message or post is imagining a world where we all care more about being grateful for the awesome instead of complaining about the suck.

I am always so touched when I receive gratitude directed towards me, but expressing it myself is one of the most instantaneous ways I know to shift from so-so to joy and it can last for hours, changing my day and the day around me, creating a ripple of happy. When I am expressing gratitude TO people on the regular, the gratitude I journal daily becomes more powerful. More observant. More tangible. So it's a virtuous cycle that can keep spinning for as long as you keep saying Thank You.

Maybe, like me, you love really pretty or cool cards. Awesome. Rock it. But sincere gratitude on a piece of printer paper is no less special and has the exact same effect on your brain chemistry.

Want more moments of feeling truly happy? Say thank you more and you will be AMAZED by how powerful words of gratitude truly are. It's a habit that is so easy to add but has such a BIG effect.

Thank you for reading me, friends.

XOXO, Courtney