Gratitude saved my life. About 15 years ago when I was 30, I was diagnosed with an invasive triple negative breast cancer. As many of you can relate to, I was scared, sad, confused and angry. I had thought I had done everything right. Why did this happen to me? During my journey of recovery, I did many things to support my health and healing process. One of the exercises I started to do on a daily basis, was keep a gratitude journal. Every day after I wrote in my journal, I wrote down 3 things I was grateful for. I was doing this, because for some reason I knew I had to and I had learned about it on Oprah. At the beginning it was so hard. I was not feeling grateful at the time. But over time, this exercise changed me so profoundly. I was listening to NPR yesterday morning about the benefits of gratitude for children and it brought me back to this time in my life when I was so completely changed. Gratitude helped the fear go away. Gratitude helped me learn what was important in life. Gratitude helped me feel happy again. Gratitude helped me turn this very difficult time into a time of growth. If you want to learn more about the benefits of gratitude, click on the NPR link below. Share how your gratitude practice has helped you.
http://wamc.org/post/dr-jeffrey-froh-hofstra-university-benefits-gratitude