November means Thanksgiving, a feast of family and food that kicks off the holiday season. And yet, the very meaning of the holiday – thanks giving – should prompt us to seek out gratitude practices that can improve our health and wellbeing, while making us more satisfied and happier with life.
Practice Daily Gratitude And Transform Your World
Research supports that making time to appreciate what is working in your life – small things like that morning cup of coffee or soothing evening steambath, and larger things like being grateful for the promotion or the healthy outcome of a surgical procedure – can enhance our lives. Yes, Thanksgiving as a holiday comes only one day a year – but a practice of gratitude can start this month and be a year-long and life-long change of attitude that transforms your world.
By practicing gratitude, we can eventually manage to banish the negative thinking that can stop us from taking risks, achieving our potential, and enjoying our lives. The key? Focusing on what is working – no matter how inconsequential – rather than our problems.
SteamTherapy Tips For Getting Started With Gratitude
How to get started? Here are some tried and true methods:
- Write it down. Whether you start a brand-new gratitude journal (a great pre-holiday gift for yourself), write it on the calendar, or make it a daily social media entry on Facebook or Twitter, writing down what you’re grateful for not only prompts you to stop and appreciate it, but also to embrace a new ritual of noticing.
- Consider what is good in your life – and what is working. Ask yourself questions: Who loves me? What positive things are going to happen today? What can I do to make the world around me happier? If the day ahead seems fraught with difficulties, consider what the best possible outcome might be – or, if things truly do go as poorly as you fear, what aspects of your life can you depend on, such as that roof over your head, your health, and people who care about you?
- See the silver lining, not the closed door. Of course, things can go poorly – it happens to all of us. Sometimes we simply can’t control the circumstances or the people in our world. But the longer you allow yourself to stay in a funk, the longer your attitude toward the world and yourself will be skewed and pessimistic.
It can be hard to see the silver lining – but rest assured, there is one. We all know Alexander Graham Bell’s saying: “When one door shuts, another opens.” Think this is overly optimistic? There’s actually more to the quote: “When one door closes another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.” Keep an eye out for the opening door!
- Be present in the moment. One of the things that can get in the way of gratitude is when we’re so busy focusing on what we need to do next that we can’t stop and “smell the roses.” You may need to remind yourself to slow down and experience the life that is happening all around you. Use all of your senses to truly appreciate the moment – the warmth of your blankets when you wake up, the smell of a good meal bubbling on the stove, the clatter of your kids as they burst into the house.
Engage Your Senses and Be In The Moment With SteamTherapy
Need to practice being in the moment? SteamTherapy is a wonderful place to start. Consider how your daily ritual engages so many of your senses:
- The scent of aromatherapy can help you to remember wonderful memories
- The sound of music wafting through your speakers, causes you to relax and slow down
- The immersive sight of chromatherapy lighting, creates an environment rich with color, mood and warmth
- The touch of the steam on your skin and the warm embrace of a soft towel is comforting and soothing
>> See How To Connect the AromaSteam System to Your Steam Shower Generator
>> See Hear the Benefits of Steam with AudioWizard™
>> See How To Install the Chroma Light Cable and Light Up Your Steam Room
- Make gratitude a public practice. By smiling more, telling someone how much you appreciate them, calling someone’s attention to the beauty of nature or the wonderful job someone’s doing at work, you not only change your own attitude, but you can have a significantly positive effect on others. Thinking about your mom? Give her a call. See your kids do something nice for the neighbors? Tell them so!
- Set a time. If your day is too jam-packed and busy – and whose isn’t? – you might need to devote a specific moment of time when you can think back and consider everything that made today special. You need a setting that encourages such contemplation, of course. May we humbly suggest that your daily steamshower is the perfect sanctuary for such reflection?
>> See Steam Bathing 101: Seven Steps For an Effective Steam Bath
>> See What to Expect from a Steam Room Experience
Make Every Day About Thanks Giving
Yes, there’s no doubt that Thanksgiving is a special day – and we hope you will go around the table and ask everyone what each is grateful for this year. But why not start your gratitude practice early?
That way, your newly thankful daily attitude can permeate your entire life, not just accompany the turkey with all the fixings!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! May every day be filled with daily gratitude.