Express your gratitude as a daily activity in November

Welcome to November. It’s “National Gratitude Month.” Dagnabbit: What a great idea! Give thanks to Stacy Grewal, an author, spiritual mentor and life coach, who first suggested the official designation.

Let’s make every day in November a day of thankfulness. The folks at National Day Calendar, an organization based in Mandan, N.D., approved Grewal’s recommendation in 2015. As a result, November is now to be forever known as National Gratitude Month in North America.

“Gratitude is an essential ingredient of a happy, fulfilling life,” said Grewal, who wrote the book Gratitude and Goals: Create the Life You Would Love to Live, published in 2010.

She noted: “Research shows that practicing daily gratitude can enhance our moods, decrease stress and drastically improve our overall level of wellbeing.”

The 30 days of November present “a great opportunity to see if you can improve your life by getting more in touch with gratitude,” Grewal said. “Grateful people tend to be healthier, more physically fit and have much more satisfying personal and professional relationships.”

She shares the soapbox with Lewis Howes, a U.S. Olympian (team handball) and author. He coined the phrase “attitude of gratitude,” according to Andrew Merle, a contributor to the Huffington Post.

Grewal offers a bit of testimony on her website, agratefulplanet.com. She has counted her blessings since 1997, when she conquered alcohol. “My life has had its ups and downs, but every day I grow more happy, joyous and free,” she wrote. “I’m on a mission to share things to help others to live happier, fuller, more grateful, spiritually enlightened lives.”

She and her husband, along with their three sons, live in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, which is just north of Toronto. Grewal welcomes comments via her Facebook account.

The benefits of gratitude impact individuals in a physical, psychological and social matter, according to a study from the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. People that practice gratitude on a daily basis tend to have:

Fewer feelings of isolation and loneliness; a stronger immune system; better sleep; lowered blood pressure; reduced anxiety and depression; reduction in body aches and pains; and increased satisfaction at work/school.

Heather Haunga, writing for The Organized Mom website, said parents who are interested in schooling their children about gratitude might want to consider a few family activities.

Create a “family gratitude jar.” Family members are invited to add notes about things they are thankful for, and share the contents at dinner on Thanksgiving.

Select a collection of Thanksgiving and gratitude books for family reading time.

Paint some “gratitude stones” with pretty hearts that can be conversation starters about thankfulness and also used as gifts to be given to precious friends.

Create a “thankful tree” that allows each family member to contribute notes on colored leaves cut from construction paper. It makes a great decoration. Instructions can be found at onecreativemommy.com/thankful-tree-tutorial-printable/.

Additionally, Janae Jacobson, who maintains the “I Can Teach My Child” website, suggests a family-fun game, “turkey toss of thankfulness.” Taking turns, participants toss the turkey ball back and forth while saying what they’re thankful for. Half the fun of it is making your own turkey ball with feathers.

Laurie Turk of TipJunkie.com recommends children make the holiday dinner table placemats, and offers seven tutorials from which to choose.

Angie Kauffman has several websites that she manages. One is “Real Life at Home,” and she shares tips about children making the entire table cloth. Perhaps this project is more suited for older children or a houseful of young artists.

Literature is filled with poetry and words of wisdom from some of the old masters. Among them was Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), the Roman statesman, orator, lawyer and philosopher, who said: “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others.”

“Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul,” said Henry Ward Beecher (1813-87), an American Congregationalist clergyman and social reformer.

Young children can grasp that imagery of a flower blooming as well as understand the message conveyed by William Arthur Ward (1921-94), an American writer of inspirational maxims, who said:

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”