By Amy Frost

You’re doing great… you go to bed, and you pop up at 3am with the weight of the world on your shoulders… ARGGGGGGGGGGGGG – This is a good time for some gratitude! What?

According to studies at the University of California, Davis, grateful people not only report that they are more satisfied, optimistic, and content with their lives, but they also have fewer medical symptoms, more energy, and even sleep better. In addition, cultivating gratitude improves our mood, and makes us more sociable and willing to help others. I know that gratitude is also an important element in creating and maintaining healthy relationships at home and at work.

“I am grateful for each new morning with its light; For rest and shelter of the night, for health and food, for love and friends; For everything Thy goodness sends.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Here’s one of my favorite techniques:

Write letters to people you’ve never properly thanked. Go into detail about all the ways they made your life better. Then give it to them. Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., Author of Gratitude Works

For the past year, I have been facilitating monthly workshops at the City of No. Las Vegas Veteran center for women veterans, spouses, adult children, and community supporters. A couple of weeks ago I led a workshop on “Gratitude A Lifestyle”.   We did exercises on feeling gratitude and how we can share it with those we work with, who support us and those we care about.  I asked them to write a card to someone they had been meaning to thank.  I wrote one too.  Then, I real time read my card to my longtime friend and veteran spouse Sharon who came to support me. She knows I value and appreciate her and taking the time in person to share my feelings was meaningful to us and to everyone who witnessed it.  Then, I asked them to visualize themselves reading their words to the person they wrote to.  Their homework for the month was to share the card they wrote with that person.

We ended by sharing what we were grateful for in that moment. I was shocked at the vulnerability and the sharing that came forward.  We all cried, shared our hearts and vowed to use gratitude as a way of living, not just a band aid we use when we are in trouble with others.

“Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.” Doris Day

HOMEWORK:

Start a gratitude journal.  Write down 3 things a day that you are grateful for.  It will change your focus to what is going well, not just on what you are unhappy about.  Here come questions to get you started.

My favorite way to say thank you is…

The best thank-you I’ve ever received is…

It is my honor to be of service to you and your family.  I look forward to continuing our work together.

Blessings, Amy

Amy has worked with thousands of managers and employees dealing with a multitude of workplace related issues that impact company morale and productivity. She is an accomplished trainer, facilitator, radio and podcast host, educator, keynote presenter, life and career coach, and writer. She worked for the Department of Defense for 20 years as a contract negotiator and a Total Quality Management (TQM) facilitator and trainer. She was on faculty at the University of Phoenix where she was distinguished as an outstanding faculty member and was a faculty mentor. In 2012, Amy received the Oprah Magazine, Crocs Cares and Nonprofit Sector Foundation Stepping Up to your Purpose and Walking for Good Award; In 2018, she received the Humanitarian of the Year award by the Association of Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP). She was given the Adopt a Cop NV Light Bearer Award Jan 2021 and the Community Connect LV (www.communityconnectLV.org) Humanitarian Award for 2023.She was the Co-creator and Facilitator of International Coaching Federation (ICF) Certified Emotional Intelligence and Positive Psychology Executive Coaching ™ Program with Institute of Career Coaching (ICC).

And, most importantly she was born on an Air Force Base, grew up in the military, she was a military daughter, niece and spouse.  She is a veteran spouse.  She is committed to supporting veterans, their spouses and family members in successful and fulfilling lives and career transitions using tried and true as well as cutting edge tools and techniques.