The Power and Promise of Humane Education
Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times
Claude and Medea: The Hellburn Dogs
So, You Love Animals: An Action-Packed, Fun-Filled Book to Help Kids Help Animals
In a recent Wall Street Journal article, “Thank You. No, Thank You,” we learn that giving thanks is good for you. Not a big surprise, but post-Thanksgiving, it’s nice to be reminded that cultivating appreciation and thankfulness is a win-win all year round. While this article reveals what most of us already know from our life experience (and common sense), it’s interesting that actual studies demonstrate that when we experience gratitude we’re healthier, happier, sleep better (and even earn more money). Cultivating gratitude is good for kids and teens, too; not exactly a surprise, but something we might want to help our adolescents, in particular, to experience. In our family, we have made it a ritual to hold hands before dinner and each say something we’re grateful for. Unfortunately, too often, the answers have became rote, but I have insisted on the ritual nonetheless. I think it’s important.
On Thanksgiving morning before anyone else in the family awoke, I spent some time reflecting upon what I was grateful for. I composed an email to the staff of the Institute for Humane Education where I work, because my gratitude to them felt so deep I had to express it. And it felt so good to compose this expression of thanks. Then I took my dogs for a walk along the ocean and continued thinking about all that I was grateful for, and I noticed that I was smiling as I walked. Indeed, gratitude feels great.
So, post-Thanksgiving, remember to reflect upon your own gratitude each day. It will help make your life, and the world, a better place.
With thanks to those of you who read my blog 
Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm and Above All, Be Kind
Image courtesy of cheerytomato via Creative Commons.
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Filed under: gratitude, mindfulness, MOGO (Most Good) | Tagged: appreciation, fulfillment, gratitude, happiness, health, rituals, success, thankfulness, Thanksgiving | Comments Off
Thanksgiving is always a bittersweet holiday to me. I love the whole idea of Thanksgiving – a time to reflect upon the gifts we’ve received and offer our thanks, but when I think about the origins of the holiday and the ways in which the European settlers committed genocide upon the Native peoples in the U.S., and the ways in which we have still failed to redress the suffering we caused and continue to perpetuate, I feel ashamed and full of sorrow. And when I think about the millions of turkeys raised for Thanksgiving meals in cruel factory farms, bred to be so big they cannot mate and can barely walk, debeaked, crowded in disgusting warehouses, slaughtered in the most inhumane of ways, I want to cry and shout at the same time.
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